Violators of Republic Act No. 4566 or the Contractors’ License Law will soon face stiffer penalties under a new law signed by President Duterte.
Duterte on Tuesday finally signed RA No. 11711, which expanded the provisions of Sec. 35 of RA 4566 on prohibited acts.
The new law imposes penalty against those who will engage in the business of contracting without the necessary license; and managing partner, officer, or employee of licensed partnership, corporation, firm, association or other organization to individually engage in contracting business.
Also prohibited are for two or more licensees, each of whom has been issued a license to engage separately in the capacity of a contractor, but shall jointly submit a bid or otherwise act in the capacity of a contractor without securing an additional license for acting in the capacity of such a joint venture.
Those engaged in the said illegal activities will be fined no less than P100,000, but not more than P500,000 plus the equivalent of one-tenth of one percent of the project cost.
The erring parties will also be banned from obtaining a contractor’s license for a period of one year from the time the said party is found guilty.
A higher fine of not less than P500,000, but not more than P1 million and imprisonment of not less than one year, but not more than six years will be imposed on any person, who will present or file the license certificate of another, give false evidence of any kind to the Philippine Licensing Board for Contractors (PCAB), or any member of thereof, in obtaining a certificate or license, impersonate another, or use an expired or revoked certificate or license.
Prior to the passage of RA 11711, erring contractors were only fined with no less than P500, but not more than P5,000.
The new law also extended the validity of the license issued by the PCAB to one year from the date of issuance from just the remaining parts of the fiscal year.
Contractors in good standing for over 10 to 25 years, they may renew their license every two and three years, respectively.
It also raised the existing fees by PCAB for getting license to P5,000, examination of applicants for P6,000 and renewal of license to P5,000.
The PCAB was authorized to make use of the said collected fees to improve its accreditation and licensing operations and to increase its rates once every three years.
RA 11711 will take effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette in at least two newspapers of general circulation.