Mandate

ThePRChas one of the most daunting mandates in national development, as it regulates and supervises the practice of the professionals who constitute the highly skilled manpower of the country. As the agency-in-charge of the professional sector, the PRC plays a strategic role in developing the corps of professionals for industry, commerce, governance, and the economy.

Professional regulation impacts not only on the lives of the 2.4 million registered Filipino professionals from 42 various fields and the hundreds of thousands of aspiring professionals who take the licensure examinations every year. More, so, PRC affects the lives of every Filipino relying on the services of the professionals.

Yet, despite its encompassing mandate and compelling role, the PRC strives to make do with its budget to support its operations, even as it earns around P382M annually for government coffers. Even as the agency operates at only half its prescribed manpower, it continued to fully perform its mandate. While its Central Office in Manila is so congested that it can barely accommodate the more than daily transacting 3,000 professionals and applicants, it tries to make up with no lunch break services and streamlined systems.

PRC has in the past been tagged as the cradle of anomalies and fixing activities. Examination leakages easily got their way into review center and examination sites. Professional licenses and Board Certificates can easily be bought along C. M. Recto Avenue. Syndicates and fixers freely roamed the agencys premises. No doubt, the PRC has been generally misconstrued and unappreciated by the general public and even by the professionals it is mandated to serve.

Posing even greater challenges to professional regulation are the recent international developments brought about by globalization, liberalization of trade in services, and information technology. PRC mandate has then gone far beyond licensing board passers into promoting and sustaining a corps of world-class, technical proficient, and ethically competent Filipino professionals. The need to modernize and re-engineer the PRC has become the foremost concern. The enactment of Republic Act No. 8981 or the PRC Modernization Act of 2000 and the change in agency leadership gave birth to a new PRC. A courageous and determined leadership has waged an intense battle against antiquated technologies and inefficient systems, against an attitude of laxity and complacency, against misperceptions and a negative image, and against pressures from the outside.

Bravely facing the challenges of reforms, the new PRC has committed to modernize itself and take off this year through technology application. Thus, its theme e-PRC: Taking Off @ Electronic Modernization and Empowerment Towards Excellent Service. As PRC Chairperson Antonieta Fortuna-Ibe put it: To assume technical and moral ascendancy over clients, the PRC must be fiercely committed to continue modernizing itself.

As it seeks to attain excellence in service to the professionals, the Commission launched the following Flagship Electronic Modernization Projects:

a. PRC DoxPro:Call Center with Delivery System

b. Professional ID in Minutes

c. Computerized Official Receipt and Income Reporting

d. e-National Government Accounting System

Our Mandate

Nurture Filipino Professionals towards technical proficiency and civic responsibility in the service of the Filipino nation

Republic Act 8981 mandates the following:

1. Institutionalization of centerpiece programs -

Full computerization

careful selection of Professional Regulatory Board members, and

monitoring of school performance to upgrade quality of education

2. Updating of organizational structure for operational efficiency and effectiveness;

3. Strengthening of PRC's enforcement powers, including regulatory powers over foreign professionals practicing in the country;

4. Authority to use income for full computerization; and

5. Upgrading of compensation and allowances of Chairperson to that of a Department Secretary and those of the Commissioners to that of Undersecretary.

CIVIL CODE

TheCivil Code of the Philippinesis the product of thecodificationofprivate lawin thePhilippines. It is the general law that governsfamilyandproperty relationsin the Philippines. It was enacted in 1950, and remains in force to date despite some significant amendments.The Philippine Civil Code is the basic law governing:

(1) persons and family relations;

(2) property, ownership and its modifications;

(3) the modes of acquiring ownership; and

(4) obligations and contracts.

Executive Order No. 48 dated March 20, 1947 created a Code Commission tasked with the immediate revision of all existing substantive laws of the Philippines and of codifying them in conformity with the customs, traditions, and idiosyncrasies of the Filipino people and with modern trends in legislation and the progressive principles of law. On January 26, 1948, the Code Commission submitted its report to the President. On June 18, 1949, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 386 entitled An Act to Ordain and Institute the Civil Code of the Philippines.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CODE

Intellectual property(IP) is a legal term that refers to creations of the mind. Examples of intellectual property include music, literature, and other artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Under intellectual property laws, owners of intellectual property are granted certain exclusive rights. Some common types of intellectual property rights (IPR) arecopyright,patents, andindustrial design rights; and the rights that protecttrademarks,trade dress, and in some jurisdictionstrade secrets. Intellectual property rights are themselves a form of property, calledintangible property.What is Intellectual Property?Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.

IP is protected in law by, for example,patents,copyrightandtrademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. By striking the right balance between the interests of innovators and the wider public interest, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.