Laws & Regulations

History of Geodetic Engineering

On December 5, 1929, Public Act No. 3626 was passed into law providing for a Board of Examiners for Surveyors. The Board was composed of five members, most of whom were practicing surveyors. Vicente Mills was appointed Chairman with Demetrio Andres, Antonio Manahan, Juan Coronado, and Ambrosio Zamora as Members. Created to maintain a corps of academically and morally qualified professionals in their field, the Board administered three kinds of examinations — for private land, cadastral land, and mineral land surveyor.

Pursuant to the Reorganization Law of 1932, the Board was placed under the stewardship of the Bureau of Civil Service. The Board at the time was composed of Vicente Mills as Chairman, with Juan Coronado and Raymundo Kagahastian as Members.

Geodetic engineering was not recognized as a profession until the enactment of Republic Act No. 4374, the “Geodetic Engineering Law”, on June 19, 1965. Under the Act, any person who was technically and legally qualified to practice geodetic engineering shall be called “Geodetic Engineer” superseding the term “Surveyor”.

Republic Act No. 4374 was later amended by Presidential Decree No. 202 issued on June 2, 1973 and Presidential Decree No. 335 signed on November 13, 1973. When the PRC was created on June 22, 1973, the Board was constituted with Julian V. Santos as Chairman, and Antonio A. Mansueto and Godofredo Limbo as Members.

On February 26, 1998, Republic Act No. 8560, otherwise known as the “Philippine Geodetic Engineering Act of 1998”, was passed into law removing the licensure examinations for Junior Geodetic Engineers (JGE) and allowing the present JGEs to practice until five years after the effectivity of the Act.

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