2004 Republic Act 9266 (color-coded text)
Republic Act (R.A.) No. 9266 (The Architecture Act of 2004) is a special law that effectively repealed R.A. No. 545 of 1950, as amended by R.A. No. 1581 of 1956. R.A. No. 9266 was the result of the harmonization of the provisions under House Bill No. (HBN) 5389 and Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2710 filed by then Senator Aquilino (Nene) Pimentel, Jr., the acknowledged father of the law, which he sometimes referred to as the first (1st) bible of Philippine architectural practice.
The R.A. No. 9266 lobby effort at the House of Representatives was led by the Philippine Institute of Architects (PIA) while at the Senate, it was the Architecture Advocacy International Foundation (AAIF), Inc. that spearheaded the lobby effort at the Upper Chamber. The first bill on the repeal of R.A. No. 545 was filed in mid-2002 by Senator Ramon (Jun) Magsaysay, Jr., upon the representations made by the National Committee on Legislation and Codes (NCLC), then chaired by Arch. Greg Timbol II. The NCLC was a standing committee of the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP, an association of architects/ AA formed in 1974), with the NCLC members subsequently forming the AAIF in late 2002 to continue the sustained lobby effort for the Magsaysay (later replaced by the Pimentel) Senate bills that later became R.A. No. 9266, which took full effect on 17 April 2004.
R.A. No. 9266, which was officially crafted from 2002-04 with the full participation of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and other State-regulated professionals such as PH civil engineers (CEs) and their organizations, and is a valid and subsisting professional regulatory law (PRL) that has been in full effect since 2004 i.e. there is no pending court case, no temporary restraining order (TRO), no injunction, no court decision and no Philippine (PH) jurisprudence DIRECTLY enjoining the full implementation and enforcement of ANY of its provisions, specifically those dealing with the preparation, signing and dry-sealing of architectural documents. R.A. No. 9266 is a law which ALL public officials and employees are sworn to uphold over any other private interests, specifically those under the Departments of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Interior and Local Government (DILG) and its local government units (LGUs) and other infrastructure and procurement agencies.
This color-coded text version of the law was first prepared by the AAIF in 2005, later officially adopted by the 2006-12 PRC Professional Regulatory Board of Architecture (PRBoA, the first fully reconstituted one under R.A. No. 9266), and was posted at the old PRBoA website from 2008-17 as ready reference for PH Architects.