Believing that the National Building Code (NBC) is ripe for an overhaul, Camarines Sur (CamSur) Representatives Migz Villafuerte and Luigi Villafuerte are appealing to senators to similarly pass this year a House-approved bill aimed at making Philippine infrastructure far more resilient, especially in the face of the increasingly devastating impact of erratic weather.
The solons said that among the bills passed by the House of Representatives before the Dec. 23-Jan.25 Christmas break of the Congress was House Bill (HB) No. 6615, which aims to promote building resilience against earthquakes, fires, floods, landslides, storms and volcanic eruptions.
They made this appeal to senators over the weekend to act on their version of the House-approved HB 6615 as the Congress reopens Monday (Jan. 26) after its yearend break.
The CamSur representatives told senators that the congressional approval of this substitute measure is urgent, in light of the affirmed “vulnerability of the Philippines with its recent ranking as No. 1 most disaster-prone country in the world with a Risk Index of 46.91%, significantly higher than its 2018 score of 26.70%.”
They said that in a global review and assessment by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank of 22 countries across geographic regions, these two institutions said “the Philippines needs to modernize its outdated building code, including adding provisions to address resilience to strong wind events and flooding, for the design of retaining walls, the design of seismic isolation systems, and inclusion of design provisions for confined masonry buildings and vernacular timber building types.”
The congressional approval of the substitute measure is urgent, in light of the affirmed “vulnerability of the Philippines.”
HB 6615 proposes a “New Philippine Building Act,” to gird up our country for, among others, the so-called “The Big One” earthquake that experts fear could knock down at any time at least 10% of structures in Metro Manila, the Villafuertes said.
A counterpart bill on amending the PBC is pending in the Senate.
HB 6615 was the substitute bill for several measures similarly aiming to overhaul the NBC, including HB 2396, or the “New Philippine Building Act,” which the Villafuertes introduced last year with CamSur Rep. Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata and Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon.
In the 19th Congress, the House had passed on third and final reading HB 8500 that sought to replace the PBC.
Among the authors of the House-approved HB 8500 in the previous Congress were Migz Villafuerte, Horibata, the Bicol Saro partylist and then-Rep. and now CamSur Gov. LRay Villafuerte.
Among the bills passed by the House of Representatives before the Dec. 23-Jan.25 Christmas break of the Congress was House Bill (HB) No. 6615, which aims to promote building resilience against earthquakes, fires, floods, landslides, storms and volcanic eruptions.
The PBC was established through President Decree (PD) No. 1096 that was issued in 1977 to set standards for the design, construction and maintenance of structures in the country.
Migz and Luigi Villafuerte earlier supported the plan by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to revisit their two-decade-old study on the impact of “The Big One” earthquake that could possibly hit Metro Manila and neighboring provinces, in light of the recent spate of tremors that hit Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Phivolcs director Teresito Bacolcol said at a 2025 news forum that a review of the JICA study on “The Big One” was set for 2026.
“We have no idea yet when in 2026, but definitely it (review) will start next year,” Bacolcol was quoted as saying in an October 2025 news forum in Quezon City.
Bacolcol reportedly said the Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study, which was conducted in 2004 by JICA with Phivolcs and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), assessed that the movement of the 100-kilometer (km) West Valley Fault (WVF) or Marikina Valley fault line would trigger a major earthquake.
He said the worst earthquake to hit the Philippines thus far happened in August 1976 when a tremor traced to the Cotabato Trench killed around 8,000 people.
