THE NEW MANDATE OF THE PROFESIONAL REGULATION COMMISSION

The PRC has 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.
b.
c.
d.

PRC DoxPro:Call Center with Delivery System

Professional ID in Minutes
Computerized Official Receipt and Income Reporting
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.