Filipino engineers plan community service, outreach work

By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter

After successfully establishing a “green school building” in southern Philippines, a group of Filipino civil engineers is set to launch more community service and outreach programmes in Qatar this year.

The Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers-Qatar (PICE-Qatar) wants to return the favour to its host country for giving its members the opportunity to work in this oil rich country.

Arnel Punsalan, president of PICE, said they also want to help more aspiring engineers to pass the board examinations which will be held in October. The group recently held an induction of its board of directors and oath-taking of six new civil engineers in Doha.

Punsalan disclosed that they are set to hold blood donation, basketball tournament, and gift-giving to distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) at the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO). They are also open to other “green initiatives” like tree planting activities.

The 1,500-member organisation also held a beach cleanup drive recently and hosted the first international technical conference last year under the leadership of its former president, Delfino de Leon.

Some of their monthly activities included board exam reviews and technical seminars discussing topics like “waste water works” and “seminar on chartered engineering”. The general assembly and election of new set of officers are being held every November.

“We are trying our best to get resource speakers from Bahrain and United Kingdom,” Punsalan said.

Thanking PICE for the help it extended to OFWs, labour attaché Leopoldo de Jesus lauded the efforts of PICE-Qatar for continuously holding community outreach programmes.

He said the group is most qualified to be one of the “outstanding professional organisations” in Qatar.

Apollo Enriquez, chairman of the board of Civil Engineering-Philippine Regulations Commission (PRC), said PICE-Qatar is one of the most well-known chapters. He urged members of the group and other OFWs to invest in the Philippines, citing its improving economy.

Enriquez also reported about new developments concerning the “mutual regional agreement” saying that it took five years before it was implemented in 2010.

However, he stressed that under the said agreement, foreign workers are required to secure a permit first before being allowed to work in the Philippines. This policy is also being implemented in other Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries.

Meanwhile, vice consuls Melvin Almonguera and Christine Bautista said that PICE-Qatar is one of their partners in pursuing worthy projects.

They also reminded its members and officers to follow the rules of the host country. It is learnt that five persons were earlier arrested for falsification of documents.

Almonguera also announced that OFWs can start to vote in mid- April under the overseas absentee voting.