Section 27. Seal and Use of Seal.—
Each registrant shall, upon registration, obtain a seal of such design as the Board may adopt and prescribe. Plans and specifications prepared by, or under the direct supervision of a registered agricultural and biosystems engineer, shall be stamped with said seal during the validity of the professional license. No person shall stamp or seal any document with the seal of a registrant after his/her professional license has expired or lost its validity unless he/she has been reinstated to the practice and/or unless his/her license has been renewed.
No officer or employee of the government, chartered cities, provinces and municipalities now or hereinafter charged with the enforcement of laws, ordinances or regulations relating to the implementation, construction, repair, operation and maintenance, testing and evaluation of agricultural and biosystems buildings, structures, machineries and equipment, irrigation, soil and water conservation structures and other agricultural and biosystems engineering facilities, shall accept or endorse any plans, designs, specifications or project studies which have not been prepared and submitted in full accord with the provisions of this Act, nor shall any payment be approved by any such Officer for any work, the plans and specifications of which have not been so prepared, signed and sealed by a duly registered agricultural and biosystems engineer. This provision shall be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Local Building Officials in the issuance of building permits and certificate of occupancy under the National Building Code, and by all concerned national government entities and local government units (LGUs) in the procurement and in the discharge of their regulatory and auditing functions pertaining to agricultural and biosystems buildings, structures, machineries and equipment, irrigation, soil and water conservation structures, and other agricultural and biosystems engineering facilities/projects.
No agricultural and biosystems engineer shall sign his/her name, affix his/her seal or use any other method of signature on plans, designs, specifications or other documents made by or under another agricultural and biosystems engineer’s supervision unless the same is made in such manner as to clearly indicate the part of such work actually performed by him/her, and no person, except the agricultural and biosystems engineer-in-charge shall sign for any branch of the work or any function of agricultural and biosystems engineering practice not actually performed by him/her. The agricultural and biosystems engineer-in-charge shall be fully responsible for all plans, designs, specifications and other documents issued under his/her seal or authorized signature.
The Board shall formulate, adopt and promulgate all necessary rules and regulations for the effective implementation of the provisions relating to the design of the seal, the signing and sealing of drawings, reports and other documents by agricultural and biosystems engineers.
Drawings, plans, designs and specifications duly signed, stamped or sealed as instruments of service are the property and documents of the agricultural and biosystems engineer, whether the projects for which they were made is executed or not. No person without the written consent of the agricultural and biosystems engineer or author of said documents, shall duplicate or make copies of said documents for use in the repetition of and for other projects, whether executed partly or in whole.
All drawings, plans, specifications and other documents and reports to be used for the design, construction, test and evaluation, research and extension of agricultural and biosystems buildings, structures, machineries and equipment, irrigation, soil and water conservation structures and other agricultural and biosystems engineering facilities/p rejects shall be signed and sealed by a licensed agricultural and biosystems engineer.
Violation of any of the foregoing shall be ground for administrative and/or criminal action.