01/05/2026
ACTIVE LINKS TO MATERIALS ON DEVELOPMENT CONTROLS (DC)
as Co-Authored by PH Arch/Enp Armando N. Alli
Part 1 of 5
1) THE 2004 REVISED IMPLEMENTING RULES AND REGULATIONS (RIRR) OF Presidential Decree (P.D.) NO. 1096, THE 1977 NATIONAL BUILDING CODE OF THE PHILIPPINES (NBCP), as published thrice on a national broadsheet (i.e., Manila Standard on 01, 08 & 15 April 2005), at links:
a)https://www.dpwh.gov.ph/DPWH/files/nbc/IRR.pdf
b) https://www.dpwh.gov.ph/dpwh/references/laws_codes_orders/PD1096
c)https://www.architectureboard.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1.12-PD1096_-2004revIRR_PRBoA-unofcl-versnw08annotns.pdf
d) https://www.architectureboard.com.ph/presidential-decree-no-1096-2004-revised-implementing-rules-and-regulations-irr-prboa-unofficial-version-with-2008-annotations/
e) https://www.facebook.com/BuildingCode.Ph
Notes:
1) P.D. No. 1096 that was promulgated and that immediately became effective in February 1977, is a law, but not a statute. The statute that covered the same subject matter was Republic Act (R.A.) No. 6541, which was enacted on 26 August 1972, less than a month before the declaration of martial law in the Philippines (PH);
2) R.A. No. 6541 of 1972 (statute, i.e., the “original” NBCP) was the initial attempt to institute a national building code, while P.D. No. 1096 (law, i.e., as the “revised” NBCP) was crafted inasmuch as R.A. No. 6541 apparently lacked the necessary technical, developmental, and modern standards required for the country's growing infrastructure back in the 1970s; P.D. No. 1096 apparently provided stricter inspection protocols and enhanced compliance mechanisms compared to the original act; even if not a statute like R.A. No. 6541, P.D. No. 1096 (at 49 years in age) is the currently recognized law regulating building design and construction in the PH;
3) The original implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of P.D. No. 1096 was promulgated in 1977; in mid-2002, Arch. Alli was officially appointed as a Member of the DPWH Board of Consultants (BoC), a public-private technical cm legal advisory body primarily tasked with national building code matters for action by the Office of the DPWH Secretary; the specific task assigned to the BoC at the time (then headed by Arch/Civil Engineer Angel Lazaro, Jr.), was the crafting of the revised IRR (RIRR) of P.D. No. 1096;
4) Over the years 2002-2004, Arch. Alli served as the co-author of Rule VII (Classification and General Requirements of All Buildings by Use or Occupancy) and Rule VIII (Light and Ventilation) of the 2004 RIRR of the NBCP; at the concluding phase of the BoC work on crafting the RIRR of the NBCP, Arch. Alli was assigned an added role as a Member of the BoC Oversight Committee; the RIRR was promulgated by then DPWH Acting Secretary Florante Soriquez on 29 October 2004;
5) During the entire period of the crafting of the 2004 RIRR of P.D. No. 1096, the 1977 NBCP (2002-2004), Arch. Alli, then a co-founder of the NGO Architecture Advocacy International Foundation (AAIF), Inc., was joined in the DPWH BoC by 3 other AAIF co-founders in the persons of Arch. Aquiles Paredes (+), Arch. Lorenzo P. Espeleta (+) and Arch. Elmor V. Vita, with the last 2 AAIF members also being BoC Oversight Committee Members;
6) Of the 40-member DPWH BoC that authored the 2004 RIRR of P.D. No. 1096, the 1977 NBCP, and the separate 7-member DPWH National Building Code Review Committee (NBCRC that included Arch. Emmanuel P. Cuntapay, then of the DPWH), about 12 were registered Architects, another 12 were registered Civil Engineers, and about 8 were registered Environmental Planners (EnP);
7) The 2004 RIRR of P.D. No. 1096, the 1977 NBCP is a key source document for Volume 3 (Model Zoning Ordinance/MZO) of the 2014 HLURB Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) Guidebook, and to this day (22 years later) serves both as a key reference and basis for many physical planning provisions and interpretations that go into new zoning ordinances (ZO), ZO IRRs and special ordinances (SOs) at the LGU level;
8) From 2007 through 2012, the knowledge, application and basic interpretations of Rules VII and VIII of the 2004 Revised IRR (RIRR) of P.D. No. 1096, the 1977 NBCP became key requirements to successfully hurdle the approx. 30% Design component of the licensure examination for architects (LEA), as administered by the then Professional Regulatory Board of Architecture (www.architectureboard.com.ph) for the Philippine (PH) Professional Regulation Commission; the approximately 20,000 LEA passers (including foreign LEA/FLEA passers) during that 6-year period may arguably be the batches of LEA passers who have the best grasp of said rules;
9) As Section 102 of P.D. No. 1096, the 1977 NBCP unequivocably states that only the minimum building design/construction standards are embodied in the NBCP, the local government units (LGU) may enact stricter (more stringent) building standards under their respective zoning ordinances (ZO) and/or special ordinances (SO) and their respective regulations, BUT the LGUs CANNOT lawfully relax (or make less strict) those minimum NBCP standards;
10) As there is presently only one (1) NBCP, the same applies equally to all settlements in the PH, i.e., from highly urbanized cities (HUC) like those found in the PH National Capital Region (NCR, more popularly known as the Metropolitan Manila Area/MMA), where land is both scarce and in smaller sizes and very, very expensive, all the way to 6th class municipalities, where land may be more readily available in larger lot cuts) and much less expensive; in the future, there could probably be one NBCP for HUCs, and 1st & 2nd class municipalities and another NBCP for 3rd though 6th class municipalities; and
11) To possibly help address the twin issues of land scarcity and high land costs at HUCs (and at 1st and 2nd class municipalities), the LGUs may either tap/activate various lawful instruments that can allow the proactive exchange of development potentials of lots/DPL (e.g., transfer of development rights/TDR such as floor area ratio/FAR, same as floor-to-lot area ratio/FLAR used in the 2004 NBCP RIRR), etc., or make use of creative interpretations of the general welfare clause under Section 16 of R.A. No. 7160, the 1991 Local Government Code (LGC), that could perhaps allow for the lawful exchange of public undertakings, such as public infrastructure and services, etc.) in exchange for additional DPL, and to ultimately benefit the LGU constituents (in terms of job creation, tax generation, etc.).
P.D. 1096, the 1977 National Building Code of the Philippines (NBCP) is a national development control aimed at maintaining public safety and well-being.
