No such thing as faulty electrical wiring, says IIEE

MANILA, Philippines - “There is no such thing as faulty electrical wiring.”

Thus declared the Integrated Institute of Electrical Engineers of the Philippines Inc. (IIEE) as it launched recently its “Electrical Safety Enforcement and Awareness (ESEA) Campaign.”

IIEE, currently headed by its national president, Armando Diaz, is the only professional organization of Filipino licensed electrical practitioners accredited by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC). It has about 30,000 members composing 77 chapters nationwide and eight abroad.

The Electrical Engineering Law (Republic Act 7920) stipulates that only those affiliated with IIEE can renew their professional licenses with the government.

During the ESEA campaign’s launch last May 21, the IIEE chapters conducted public lectures and motorcades, among other activities, to generate awareness of and harness support for IIEE’s banner program.

Diaz said there are many things about electrical use and safety that the public is not aware of.

For instance, it is improbable for an establishment, a residence for example, that has been inhabited for years (with all electrical connections working for years) to be reduced to ashes owing to faulty electrical wiring (FEW).

“An electrical system won’t work nor function if, in the very first place, it is faulty,” IIEE asserted.

In the perspective of an electrical engineer, FEW as a cause of fire is just “a scapegoat, an excuse for a fire incident with a yet unknown origin.”

“Faulty electrical wiring” was a concoction of insurance companies to give due classification for damaged properties claiming insurance benefits, said the late IIEE president Edward Mendoza, a noted professional electrical engineer and a certified ASEAN engineer.

“That’s the easiest way they could label a cause of fire,” he said.

Records show that an average of two to three massive fire cases is reported each in the country, Renato Sy, deputy fire chief of the Binondo-Paco Volunteer Fire Brigade, was quoted by IIEE’s journal (The Electrical Engineer) as saying.

Nearly 30 percent of the fires are “electrical in origin.” Yet the phrase has never been used to state an electrical-related fire. Instead, “faulty electrical wiring” is reported as among the major causes of fire-related incidents.

Thus, Diaz said, the Electrical Safety Enforcement and Awareness Campaign was designed primarily “to enhance the enforcement of the Philippine Electrical Code to ensure electrical safety in residential buildings, build capacity for the improvement of local electrical inspectors’ skills, and increase public awareness toward electrical safety.”

IIEE and Singapore-based International Copper Association-Southeast Asia (ICA-SEA) had earlier signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the project’s implementation. ICA-SEA is a nonprofit organization that promotes “copper’s essentially for health, technology, and the quality of life.” Signatories to the MOA were Diaz and ICA-SEA chief executive officer Steven Sim.

Cooperating in the campaign are the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Interior and Local Government-Bureau of Fire Protection (DILG-BFP), National Electrification Administration (NEA), National Transmission Corp. (NTC), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Meralco, Association of City and Municipal Electrical Engineers and Electricians (ACMEE), Society of Philippine Electrotechnical Constructors and Suppliers Inc. (SPECS), Safety Organization of the Philippines (SOPI), Duraflex, Columbia and Phelps Dodge.

Summing up, IIEE cited the following three important factors that determine an efficient electrical system:

• Construction, which deals with the electrical plan and design of the establishment by a professional electrical engineer.

• The contractor must be a duly registered electrical engineer who will closely supervise the installation process.

• The client, being the owner, must be very certain about the equipment, machines, or appliances that will plug into the system.