1. RECAP OF THE PSYCH LAW (http://sparkreviewcenter.

com/2013/03/04/10things-about-psychology-act-of-2009/)
10 Things About Psychology Act of 2009
Top 10 Must Know About Philippine Psychology Act of 2009
1. The Law is effective now!
And not just now but since June 2, 2010, RA 10029 is already a working and
enforceable law that affects the whole psychology field in the Philippines. The
Philippine Psychology Act of 2009 was a consolidation of two bills namely
Senate Bill No. 3498 and House Bill No. 6512 and the Act was approved on
March 16, 2010. So you might ask, whats the big deal? Well, the provisions of
the law is already effective such that everyone who performs psychological
services should be licensed. No one can call themselves psychologist or
psychometrician without being registered and having the license. But dont
worry, the Psychology Regulatory Board (PRB) gives a leeway period of 3
years for qualified professionals to register without taking the exams. For
those who cant qualify for the grandfathers clause, they need to take the
board exam.
2. What do you mean by Psychological Services?
Every professional has their own scope of practice. For the psychology field in
the Philippines it is called under the umbrella term of psychological
services. To make it simple, psychological services includes psychological
interventions, assessment, evaluation, and psychological programs. There are
a lot of functions that can be categorized under these services and you
should consult the latest Implementing Rules and Regulation of the RA 10029
to see whether your job description falls under one of these psychological
services.
Take note that teaching psychology subjects and doing research is not
covered by the Law. But another law (i.e. RA 8981) specifically requires
professors and lecturers of subjects covered by the board examination to be
licensed professionals. So for example, professors of experimental psychology
and social psychology do not need a license but those teaching theories of
personality, abnormal psychology, industrial psychology, and psychological
assessment may be required to get their license to qualify to teach the
subjects.
The following listed in Section 3b of IRR are under psychological services. You
need to have a license if your job description falls under one of these:
Psychological counseling
Psychological consultation
Psychotherapy

Psychosocial support
Life coaching
Psychological debriefing
Group processes
Psychological assessment, testing, evaluation
Development, standardization, and publication of psychological tests which
measures adjustment and psychopathology
Creation of assessment tools primarily for psycho-diagnostic purposes
Use of individual tests, projective tests, clinical interviews, and other
psychological assessment tools
Assessing psychological functions such as
cognitive abilities
aptitudes
personality characteristics
attitudes
values
interests
emotions and motivations
Making diagnostic interpretations, reports, and recommendations as part of:
case study
diagnostic screening
placement
management decisions
psychiatric evaluation
legal action
psychological counseling
psychotherapy or change intervention
Development, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of:
psychological treatment programs
play therapy
expressive arts therapy
music therapy
trauma healing
addiction rehabilitation and treatment programs
behavioral management and intervention in correctional facilities
psychological training programs which involves inner processing
mental health programs in disaster and emergency situations
3. Two Professionals, One Law
Yes thats right. The Law covers two professionals who performs two related
psychological services. Those who administer and interpret personality tests,
interpret results, prepare reports and clinical interviews are called
Psychometricians while those who are allowed to perform the whole range of
psychological services are called Psychologists. In simplest terms,
psychometricians can only do psychological assessment (except projective
and higher level tests) and psychologist can do all psychological services
including the functions of the psychometricians.

In addition to this, the psychometrician should be at all times supervised by a

psychologist. Also, all assessment report done by the psychometrician should
bear the signature of the supervising psychologist. The Law nor the IRR did
not specify if a company/institution should hire a psychologistpsychometrician tandem or a company can have the supervising psychologist
as an on-call service. But whatever the organizational setup it might be, one
thing is clear. These professionals should be licensed before they can perform
their psychological services.
4. Check first if you can register without taking the board exam
Save yourself from being a student again and investing time, money, and
effort in preparing for the board exam. The Law is friendly to those who are
qualified to be licensed without taking the exam. This is commonly termed as
the Grandfathers clause. Section 16 and 17 of the IRR specifies the
grandfathers clause criteria for the psychologists and psychometricians.
Generally, you should have the necessary work experience and academic
requirements on or before June 2, 2010 before you can be grandfathered. For
psychologists, either you have a doctoral degree with 3 years experience OR
masters degree with 5 years experience, OR a bachelors degree with 10
years experience. Note that your experience should be titled as
Psychologist and this should be reflected in your certificate of employment.
If your job title is not psychologist you are not qualified for grandfathers
clause despite doing psychological services. For psychometricians, you need
to have a bachelors degree in psychology and minimum of 2 years full-time
work experience as a psychometrician. Then again, your job title in the
certificate of employment should be psychometrician to qualify for the
grandfathers clause for psychometricians.
Remember that you can only register without taking the exam until May 21,
2015. Please refer to the specific documentary requirements that you need to
prepare before submitting your application to the PRB.
5. There will be a board exam for aspiring psychologists and
psychometricians
In the most altruistic sense, the purpose of the Law is to professionalize the
psychology field in the Philippines. It aims to define the scope of practice for
the psychology professionals so that we know what makes them unique from
the other helping professions. But practically, the Law serves as the basic
guideline for regulating these two professionals by means of a state
administered board examination. This is the most basic way of ensuring the
quality of the professionals who will render psychological services to the
public.
If you are not qualified to be grandfathered, you need to consider taking the
board exams. There are separate exams for psychologists and

psychometricians as well as separate qualifications that needs to be fulfilled.

For psychologists, you need to have a masters degree in psychology and 200
hours of supervised practicum reflected in your certificate of practicum. For
psychometricians, the only academic requirement is a bachelors degree in
psychology. No need for practicum for psychometricians. However, both field
should have the psychology as their primary title in their degree, regardless
of the arts or science designation. For example, those who finished Masters in
Education major in Psychology are NOT allowed since its primary title is
Education.
As early as now you need to prepare for the necessary documentary
requirements needed for application. The following were excerpted from the
IRR:
NSO birth certificate
Original and certified true copy of Transcript of Records with your picture. Ask
your registrar to give you a TOR for board exam purposes with your picture
printed in the TOR. Also, the TOR should have the Special Order number
printed. If your school is exempted from issuing SO number, you need to get
from your registrar the Certificate of Authentication and Validation from
CHED.
Original and photocopy of NBI clearance
Three (3) notarized certificates of good moral character preferably from your
employer, school, church leader, baranggay captain.
2 colored passport size pictures with white background and name tag
Cedula (be sure the year is the same from the time you file to PRC)
In addition for aspiring psychologists, you need to submit a certificate of
practicum and a certificate of mental health fitness from a psychiatrist or
licensed clinical psychologist. Both of these certificates should be notarized.
6. The 4 test subjects
These 4 test subjects are very important because the application process and
the board exams relies on these. For psychometricians, the 4 test subjects
are Theories of Personality, Abnormal Psychology, Industrial psychology, and
Psychological Assessment. For psychologists, there will be no industrial
psychology subject. Instead, it will be replaced by psychological counseling
and psychotherapy plus advanced subjects of Theories of Personality,
Abnormal Psychology, and Psychological Assessment.
Heres the catch these subjects should appear in your transcript of records
aside from graduating the psychology degree before you can qualify for the
board exam. The Commission on Higher Education released a memorandum
in 2009 (CMO No. 38) that details the undergraduate curriculum in
psychology. If your school already adopted this while you are studying,
chances are you will not encounter concerns in your TOR. However, some
schools have not fully implemented the CMO 38 and so these schools may
have different subject coverage in their psychology programs. Nevertheless,

in the last IRR Briefing done in DLSU-CSB, Dr. Villar stated that they may
allow subjects that have different names but have the same content with the
4 test subjects. For example, Psychology of Mental Disorders and
Psychopathology may be treated as equivalent to Abnormal Psychology in the
same way as Clinical Assessment and testing is equivalent to Psychological
Assessment.
Another development you should watch out is the possible change of test
subjects next year. Dr. Villar stated in the DLSU-CSB IRR briefing that they
may file a request in the PRC to remove industrial psychology and replace it
with developmental psychology as one of the test subjects in the
psychometrician board exam. This is due to the differences in the
undergraduate curriculum of different schools/colleges/universities.
Specifically, there are schools who only offer industrial psychology as an
elective and some of these students may have not taken it even after
graduation. For the psychologist board exam, there has no announcement yet
if developmental psychology will be added as its 5th subject. We should wait
for further announcements and board resolutions regarding this changes.
Lastly, the scope of examination for each of these test subjects will NOT be
released by the PRB, at least as of now they planned not to release it. It
means that we are left alone to decipher/guess what topics will appear in the
board exam questions. However, a consultation with professors and lecturers
of different schools was done in Assumption College last February 26, 2013.
They discussed the possible topic coverage of the test subjects as well as the
national competencies and expectations for the new psychometricians and
psychologists. The result of these consultations will hopefully be publicized in
the form of board resolution so that everyone will be informed accordingly.
7. The Professional Regulatory Board of Psychology
The Professional Regulatory Board of Psychology, a.k.a PRB is the governing
body that will oversee and regulate the practice of psychology in the
Philippines. They are under the administrative control and supervision of the
Professional Regulation Commission which is a government institution.
Currently the acting chairman of PRB is Miriam Cue and has 1 member which
is Imelda Villar.
Notable to all of the PRCs regulatory board is their quasi-judicial nature. The
PRB therefore has the authority to issue subpoena testificandum and
subpoena ducestecum. This ability allows the PRB to hear cases pertaining to
the psychology act. They can also revoke licenses, visit institutions to check
compliance with the law, coordinate with CHED, and assist in creating
guidelines for continuing professional education.
8. Prohibitions

Just like most of the laws, the RA 10029 and its IRR have a list of prohibited
acts and penalties to those who break the law. As a rule of thumb, if any one
performs one of the psychological services mentioned in the IRR BUT without
a license, that person should be prepared to be imprisoned for 6 months to 3
years and/or pay a fine of Php 10,000-100,000. Also, people are not allowed
to call themselves psychologist/psychometricians if they are not yet licensed.
For corporations and institutions involved in psychological services, they need
to secure a permit from PRB before they can legally operate. Lastly, do not
fool the PRB because if they discover the truth, you will be punished. And no
borrowing of License Card!
9. Code of Ethics
The Law mandates that psychologists and psychometricians need to adopt
their own code of ethics. Currently, PAP already has its Code of Ethics for
Psychologists which is available in their website. Since PAP will be the
accredited professional organization (APO), we expect that the code of ethics
from PAP will be used and adopted by the PRB.
10. APO
Every profession under the regulation of PRC has their own Accredited
Professional Organization (APO). If PRB serves as the legal and government
organization overseeing the professional field, the APO acts to represent the
professionals and its associates. They may serve in CPE accreditation,
certifications, academic and research functions, among others. The
Psychological Association of the Philippines will be the APO for psychology.