Professional jealousy?

To override Mayor Osmeña’s veto on the said items in the budget, the majority bloc needed 12 votes.

Agroup or somebody using the name United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), Cebu Chapter has threatened to sue Capitol officials over the award of the consultancy work for the proposed annex building project to AS Enriquez Engineering Consultancy.

The SunStar Cebu office forwarded to me the copy of the undated and unsigned letter addressed to Gov. Junjun Davide that the “UAP, Cebu Chapter” sent me.

“UAP, Cebu Chapter” claimed that AS Enriquez is “ineligible to undertake an architectural project under the architectural law.” They said this project cannot be done by engineers.

In my brief talk with him to get his side, Engr. Apollo S. Enriquez, proprietor of the AS Enriquez Engineering Consultancy, dismissed as mere sourgraping the threat of architects/architect hiding behind the UAP name to sue the Capitol officials.

The unnamed sender using UAP claimed that the AS Enriquez Engineering Consultancy had a “super bad record” with at least two projects with the Provincial Government and its proposal is allegedly “non-responsive.”

In a rather less-polite letter to Governor Hilario Davide III, “UAP, Cebu Chapter” said that “it seems that the Provincial Capitol, headed by you people, elected by us, turned deaf/blind and numb to all the flaws/wrongs/misdeeds of your BAC in recommending the award to an engineering firm of the consultancy project for the proposed Capitol building annex project despite the howls of its being improper and of being violative of govern- ment procedures and of the bad record of the AS Enriquez firm.” “BAC” refers to the Provincial Bids and Awards Committee.

Enriquez said never in any occasion did he present himself as an architect. He is a civil engineer and once sat as chair of the civil engineering board of the Professional Regulations Commission.

Capitol published the intent to bid out the preparation of feasibility study, architectural and engineering design and construction supervision for the construction of the Capitol annex building. Enriquez said his company, as a consultancy firm, was qualified to participate in that bidding.

The architectural design that his company presented to Capitol was prepared and signed by a well-known architect in Cebu (although he begs not to name him because he is also a member of UAP). He said it was his architect who made the presentation to Capitol officials.

From my understanding, architects and civil engineers complement each other in construction projects. I would thus like to think that this is a case of professional jealousy.

Enriquez said the Court of Appeals, in a case, sustained the position of civil engineers on the overlapping functions and complementary services of the two professions-–architects and civil engineers.

So when will the “UAP, Cebu Chapter” file a case against Governor Davide and the other Capitol officials? And what would the case be? The governor, who is a lawyer, would surely be more than glad to face them in court on this matter.