The Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 10915, also known as the Philippine Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Act of 2016, was formally signed by the Professional Regulations Board of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (PRBABE) and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on July 8, 2022.
Signing the IRR of RA 10915 were the PRBABE Chairman Ariodear Rico who is also DA-BAFE Director, and PRBABE members Sherwin Valdez and Caesar Joventino Tado. Approving the said IRR were PRC Chairman Teofilo Pilando Jr. and Commissioners Jose Cueto and Erwin Enad.
In his message prior to the signing ceremony, DA-BAFE Dir. Rico said that the IRR was finally signed more than five and a half years since RA 10915 or the Act Strengthening, Modernizing and Aligning the Practice of Agricultural Engineering in the Country into the Internationally Recognized Practice of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and for Other Purposes, lapsed and became effective into law on August 16, 2016.
The IRR signing was timed nine days after the inauguration of President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. who is also the concurrent Secretary of Agriculture. The implementation of the IRRs of ABE (Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering) Law and Fishery Profession Law will greatly help in increasing food production thrust of President Marcos’ administration, said Dir. Rico.
The IRR has been subjected to several exhaustive consultation meetings with different Professional Regulations Boards (PRBs). The main issues raised during these meetings focused on overlaps and encroachment in the practice of profession. Dir. Rico said that the PRBABE has taken these into consideration and addressed these concerns by including a rule in the IRR (Rule 5.1) which states “the board, may, after due consultations with the appropriate boards and subject to the approval of the commission, enter into a joint resolution and/or appropriate memoranda of agreement to clarify, delineate or define the interface of the activities constituting their respective professional practice.”
Dir. Rico emphasized that such is “doable and achievable as the PRBABE have already entered a joint resolution with the PRB of Real Estate Service on Valuation.” The same undertakings with the PRB of Fisheries and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the PRB of Foresters were also completed on July 8, 2022, thus operationalizing the covenant signed during the First Philippine Professional Summit in 2012 when Dir. Rico was the PAPRB President.
Dir. Rico is “looking forward, on an expanded scale of convergence, a MOA between and among the PRBs of ABE, agriculture, fisheries, veterinary medicine and foresters on inter-profession collaboration with DA, DAR and DENR.”
Also present in the ceremonial signing were former PRBABE member Dr. Juana Tapel, PSABE BOTs – Engr. Alex Tamondong and Engr. Janice Vargas, PSABE Board Member – Engr. Noemi Carpio and PPC President Dr. Elmer Ferry. ###Marshall Louie Asis