PICE 43rd National Convention

43rd PICE National Convention held at SM MOA Arena on Nov. 28-30, 2017.

The 43rd PICE National Convention Themed Build! Build! Build! For Smart, Strong and Sustainable Society, was held at SM MOA Arena from Nov 28, 2017 to Nov. 30, 2017 with almost 13,000 Civil Engineers present. As of this date, this is one of the most attended national civil engineer convention in history because of the required credit point units required to renew the PRC license.
When we have entered the arena, tight security has been placed and tickets need to be scanned which was distributed in our respective emails and we need to print. No ticket, No entry. They also provided us a paper band wrist so that we go re-enter the arena. Guide Personnel where present in every floor. And seat where distributed randomly. When we have entered the arena, we could see that each seat has a bag containing convention materials (convention magazine, notebook, ball pens, ID case which the printed ID cannot fit). At first, many seats were vacant. Thus, it became almost full in the late morning.


Government leaders, which were the keynote addresses, attended the convention. DoTR Secretary Arthur P. Tugade who discussed the plan to build, restore and upgrade airports in the Philippines, BCDA President Vivencio B. Dizon who talked about the Smart Green City at Clark and DPWH Secretary Mark Villar who discussed the plans of the Duterte Administration (like the subway station in Metro Manila and Davao, additional bridges in Metro Manila, North rail project, etc.)  and higher budget for infrastructure projects to improve economic growth.  by the BBB Team.  There is also technical speaker which is Engr. Deo Manalo, General Manager of MRT which talked about the Railway Engineering.Maria Catalina E. Cabral, Ph.D., National President of PICE and also Undersecretary of DPWH, announce that PICE is already an ISO 9001:2015 certified and for us to earn credit points, delegates need to have their ID scanned by the checker for each technical speaker, the first time that PICE will use the system.

Some technical speakers where foreigners, mostly Japanese, that discussed tunnel
engineering, bridge engineering and rail engineering.  While Pilipino speakers discussed about Construction arbitration, Environmental engineering, Geotechnical engineering,
transportation engineering, water engineering, structural engineering and project management engineering. Most of the talk where very interesting topic but probably a lot of us don't understand the technical session because we could not see clearly the presentation.

Overall, the national convention was a success, although I am a bit disappointed with the credit units I earned for the convention which is 9.0 units, and I think this is the maximum credit units for a participant which had attended the 43rd national convention.

Hopefully, the PICE committee would understand that it is very hard to attend a seminar or convention because of the time and cost. Many of my fellow civil engineers who attended the convention has come from far places like Mindanao just to earn credit units. I suggest that PICE committee should set a technical session of at least 15 credit units for the next PICE convention, for the participants who will attended full the technical session, to lessen the burden of the participants.

I also hope that for the next convention, PICE will prove to us participants, that convention are worth our time and money.

Checker using cellphone to get attendance.

Checker's using cellphone to get attendance.

Convention Materials

PICE 43rd National Convention Certificate of Participation and Attendance

The Certificate of Attendance/Participation for Continuing Professional Development Units has been send to my email account around 3:27 AM of December 1, 2017. Indeed it was very convenient and fast.

When I have view my certificate, I am a little bit disappointed because I have only earned 9.00 credit units, though I taught I will  receive 15 credit units. I attended all their technical session and ensure that my Convention ID was scan by the checker. I think it is 9.00 credit units is the maximum unit that a participant could earned for the 43rd National Convention.