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The House of Representatives has unanimously approved on third and final reading the New Philippine Building Act, which seeks to replace the 46-year-old Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1096 or National Building Code.

Embodied in House Bill (HB) No.8500, the measure gained 266 affirmative votes during plenary session Wednesday night, Aug. 9.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez said if and when enacted, the proposed legislation would “protect the public against multiple hazards like fire, weather disturbances, and earthquake better than our existing building law and regulations".

He said the present building code was enacted way back on Feb. 19, 1977 by the late former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

“Many developments in building standards and technologies, climate change, and disaster risk reduction and management have since taken place. It’s time that we update our law under the second Marcos administration,” Romualdez said.

“A single life or structure we can save is more than worth the time, money, and effort we have put in keeping our building law abreast with best practices and regulations," he added.

The full title of HB No.8500 is, “An Act regulating the planning, design, construction, occupancy, maintenance, and demolition of buildings, promoting building resilience against earthquake, fire, flood, landslide, storm, volcanic eruption, and multiple hazards within an all-hazards approach to resilience building, enacting a new Philippine Building Act, repealing for the purpose Republic Act No. 6541, 'n Act to ordain and institute a National Building Code of the Philippines', and Presidential Decree No. 1096, otherwise known as the 'National Building Code of the Philippines'.”

The bill is a consolidation of 10 related measures, two of which were authored by Surigao del Sur 1st district Rep. Romeo Momo Sr. and Bulacan 6th district Rep. Salvador Pleyto Sr. Both are former undersecretaries of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“We have to make our buildings withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake,” Pleyto said, adding that buildings should be “resilient against earthquakes, fire, flood, landslide, storm, volcano, and multiple hazards".

“This law (PD 1096) has to be repealed. We have been using this obsolete law,” Pleyto said

Momo chairs the House committee on public works and highways, which endorsed the proposed new building law.

The authors of the eight other related measures are Reps. Mikee Romero, Faustino Dy V, Mike Tan, Marie Bernadette Escudero, LRay Villafuerte, Miguel Luis Villafuete and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata, Teodoro Haresco Jr., and Rufus Rodriguez.

Romero, who filed the first bill to revise the National Building Code, said the law “needed to be updated to conform with the present challenges and permit processes have to be streamlined to enhance ease of doing business while promoting the safety and security of life and property".

The proposed law will even contribute to ensuring the country’s food security, he said.

“Largely due to climate change, our country is now frequently confronted with multiple hazards such as storms, fire, flooding, landslide, and even earthquake. Our law and regulations on building construction need to be updated to safeguard life and property against these hazards,” he said.

“Resilient and functionally sound buildings, from the simplest to the specialized, including farm structures to secure agricultural produce and help ensure food security, must be in place,” Romero stressed.

Momo, on the other hand, said the proposed new law sets the “minimum standards for the regulation of location, planning, design, construction, occupancy, maintenance, and demolition of buildings"

The consolidated bill provides that all doubts in the interpretation and implementation of its provisions shall be construed in a manner that is considered with and promotes its policies and objectives.

It allows local government units to pass their own building ordinances, provided these are consistent with the proposed new building law. It mandates that the construction of structures that straddle LGUs shall be harmonized.

The measure provides for the classification of buildings, including residential, business, commercial/mercantile, educational, agricultural, institutional, factory/industrial, storage, utilities, and high-hazard.

It prescribes the construction standards and requirements for each category. The secretary of public works and highways shall serve as the proposed new law’s chief implementer. He shall be designated as National Building Official (NBO).