History Of ASEP

It was not so very long ago when a new medical graduate could set up a signboard announcing to all and sundry his competence as a physician and surgeon and forthwith stride into the nearest hospital to perform a delicate operation on a terrified patient. If, in spite of the physician's ineptness, the patient had the hardy constitution to survive the ordeal, the young doctor's reputation as a surgeon was made. It did not matter that many of his operative cases afterwards did not fare so well. Figuratively, these cases are the tuition fees contributed by the patients towards the young would-be surgeon's education in the very dear and tragic school of experience. Today, of course, no reputable hospital would allow such butchery by a non-diplomate in the highly specialized field of surgery.

In the practice of civil engineering, the present situation is analogous to that of medicine fifty years ago. Any young graduate who has barely squeezed through the minimal requirements of the government board of examiners for civil engineers can put his seal and signature on the most complicated structural plans prepared by a draftsman, often without any adequate structural analysis or calculations. The reputable architect certainly would not entrust such plans to the neophyte - or even to the experience civil engineer whose practice has been confined to the non-design phases of the very broad field of civil engineering. The mathematical and theoretical requirements for specialization in structural analysis and design are so exacting that most civil engineers prefer the less demanding and more remunerative specialties like sales engineering, contracting, or management. However, the owner of the proposed structure, who would not think of hiring a general medical practitioner to perform a delicate brain operation, usually does not inquire into the qualifications of the civil engineer chosen by him or his architect to undertake the structural design computations.

One of the aims of the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP) is to acquaint the public with the fact that, while all structural engineers in the country are civil engineers, very few engineers are competent in the specialty of structural engineering. Only the latter can truly represent themselves as structural engineers who can design a structure to satisfy the three major criteria of safety, adequacy, and economy. The reasonable fees charged by the competent structural engineer are a small fraction of the huge economies gained in his efficient utilization of materials and labor. To let a non-structural specialist design a million-peso structure because he asks only P 1,000.00 for his fee while the structural engineer demands P 10,000.00 is like letting a barber excise a cancerous growth because the surgeon is asking a hundred times the barber's price for a hair cut and shave. In spite of the fact that the structural engineer often saves for the owner many times his standard professional fees by his skill in achieving the optimum arrangement and proportioning of the materials used, numerous unsafe, inadequate, or uneconomical structures are still erected all over the country as monuments to false economy in the manner of fees for competent structural engineering services.

The major objectives of the ASEP listed in its incorporation papers are:

1. To establish standard regulatory methods of practice covering schedule of fees;
2. To establish standard terms of agreement in contracts;
3. To maintain dignified norms of conduct in relation to architects;
4. To promote professional relations among structural engineers; and
5. To promote the advancement of science and design methods and techniques.

Since its formation more than two years ago by a group of the country's leading structural engineers headed by Ambrosio R. Flores, the ASEP has already achieved most of these objectives. Every member of the ASEP hopes and expects that this Association will accelerate its pace towards its goals so that his certificate of membership will be recognized by the general public as a "diploma of honor" certifying to his professional competence and integrity.

AMBROSIO R. FLORES

• Civil Engineer, Surveyor, Real Estate Broker
• Past President of Philippine Association of Structural Engineers
• First President and Founder of National Society on Seismic and Earthquake Engineering of the Philippines
• Structural Designer of over 40 churches, over 12 theaters, over 133 commercial buildings, over 17 industrial plants and factories, etc.
• Prolific and well-published author of books and articles on structural engineering, and other engineering subjects
• Engineering development awardee, (Philippine Association of Civil Engineers, 1968); Outstanding Professional Civil Structural Engineer (ASEP, 1969); outstanding service awardee (ASEP, 1969); outstanding service awardee (ASEP, 1971); among many others.
• Past President, Capitol Toastmasters
• Member, American Society of Civil Engineers
• One of the active organizer of party who welcomed ASCE President, Mr. Gail Hathaway, 1950

CHARTER MEMBERS