More than builders: redefining the civil engineer

By Ray Adrian Macalalag

As a civil engineer and part of the organizers of the recent oathtaking of new civil engineers in Iloilo City, I watched 117 young professionals raise their right hands with eyes full of ambition. The hall was filled with the energy of a new generation ready to build. Yet, as I looked at the sea of new inductees, I couldn’t help but wonder if we are setting them up for a narrow professional path. Are we welcoming them into a diverse discipline, or are we simply inducting them into a construction industry that has become our default identity?

In 2025, at least 23,000 new engineers joined the roster of the country’s regulated professionals. Approximately 9,300 of these are civil engineers who passed either the April or November board examinations. Society often stereotypes civil engineers as pragmatic problem solvers and the literal builders of civilization. This leads to a general assumption among new professionals that they will inevitably find work in the construction and structural design industry.

This is a statistical reality rather than a simple stereotype. Data from the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) reveals that a staggering 58.4 percent of specialists are accredited in project management and construction. Another 19.6 percent focus on structural engineering. These figures show that critical fields such as transportation at 3.6 percent and geotechnics at 3.3 percent are currently treated as minor niches. The industry has boxed a diverse discipline into a single corner. This limits the national capacity to solve the complex problems facing the modern landscape.

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) indicates that this concentration is a systemic constraint. In major agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), positions are overwhelmingly filled by civil engineers focused on traditional infrastructure. Key positions, for example, include 192 district engineers yet only one Architect V, one Chief Environmental Management Specialist, and one Planning Officer V, based on the Department of Budget and Management Staffing Summary for 2026. These builders are vital for development. However, the dominance of a single perspective creates a narrow focus. The country is excellent at building roads, but there is less certainty regarding whether those roads create equitable mobility. Engineers can construct massive bridges, but they do not always account for the delicate environmental ecosystems those structures span.

To move forward, the sector must stop viewing the civil engineer as a solitary builder. It is necessary to see them as part of a multidisciplinary team. This requires a fundamental revamp of how premier infrastructure agencies operate. A DPWH should function as more than a Department of Construction. The government can improve professional diversity within these ranks by intentionally hiring more environmental planners, architects, and urban designers.

An environmental planner looks at a road and sees its impact on a watershed and physical resources. An architect sees how a bridge affects the social fabric of a community. A transport specialist sees a transit network instead of just a slab of asphalt. The integration of these perspectives allows the country to move from building structures to creating sustainable places.

Furthermore, the PIDS analysis suggests that the failure to promote sub-specializations effectively contributes to a perpetual brain drain of specialized talent. When a civil engineer with a passion for hydraulics or transportation finds no specialized role in the local bureaucracy, they often take their talents to countries like Australia or New Zealand. This leaves the Philippines with a surplus of generalists and a critical shortage of the experts needed to tackle climate change and urban decay.

Civil engineers are not meant for construction alone. They are meant for resilience, mobility, and sustainability. Our institutions must evolve to value specialization and professional diversity so that engineers are no longer boxed in. It is time to trade the obsession with the hard hat for a focus on planning and multidisciplinary design. This shift is the only way to ensure the country is building a true nation rather than a simple collection of structures.