The Plumbing Code of the Philippines: which edition is in force, and what it says about your house
The plumbing code of the Philippines is the Revised National Plumbing Code of the Philippines, adopted in 1999 under a law from 1955, and it has not been replaced since. Search for it and you get scans and board-exam reviewers. This page says which document is which, what the code requires that you can see in your own house, and where each claim comes from.
Checked on 12 October 2026. Everything below is read from the adopting resolution and a public copy of the code, with the section numbers given so you can check them. It is not the text of the code and it is not legal advice; for a permit question, the building official of your city or municipality is the person with the answer.
Three documents, one name
People say "the plumbing code" for three things that are forty-four years apart.
Republic Act No. 1378, the Plumbing Law (1955)
Ratified on 18 June 1955. It regulates the trade of master plumber and created the Board for Master Plumbers. It is a law about who may practise, not a rulebook about pipes. Both codes below were issued under its section 4.
The National Plumbing Code of the Philippines (1959)
Prepared by the National Master Plumbers Association of the Philippines, NAMPAP, and promulgated on 28 January 1959. The 1972 Building Code, Republic Act 6541, named it as the referral code for plumbing. The adopting resolution of 1999 records that it was never amended in almost forty years.
The Revised National Plumbing Code of the Philippines (1999)
The edition in force, and the one every section number on this page refers to.
Drag the drawing sideways to see all of it.
The edition this page cites
The Revised National Plumbing Code of the Philippines was adopted by the Board for Master Plumbers of the Professional Regulation Commission through Board Resolution No. 04-99, "Adoption and Promulgation of the Revised National Plumbing Code of the Philippines", dated 30 September 1999, approved by the Commission and then by the President on 21 December 1999, pursuant to section 4 of Republic Act 1378. The resolution says the code takes effect thirty days after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or a newspaper of general circulation.
The printed edition carries a preface dated 3 May 2000 from the NAMPAP national president, which is why some reviewers call it the 2000 code. The resolution recites that NAMPAP formed a Plumbing Code Committee in 1994 to revise the 1959 code and a Review Committee in 1999 to check its work. A Supreme Court decision of 2002 is reported to have treated the revised code as in force once it was published in the Official Gazette.
It was still the edition in use when this page was checked on 12 October 2026: the NAMPAP site, the Professional Regulation Commission site and the board-exam material, which would be the first to carry a new edition, showed none. The date at the top of the page says when that check was made.
Where to read it: the printed book is published by NAMPAP. The adopting resolution itself is published in full on lawyerly.ph, a Philippine legal reference site.
What the code covers
The resolution says the code governs the practice of plumbing in the Philippines and the design, installation and use of plumbing fixtures and materials in buildings and infrastructure projects. The copy read for this page opens with a set of twenty-two basic principles and runs through chapters on administration, definitions, general regulations, plumbing fixtures, water supply and distribution, drainage, venting, traps, storm drainage and joints and connections, with tables of fixture units and pipe sizes a master plumber designs from. Those tables are not reproduced here: the figure that matters for your house is the one on your sealed plan.
Six of the twenty-two basic principles
The code opens with twenty-two principles. These six are the ones a householder can see the effect of, in the words of the code shortened to one line each.
- Principle 1. Every premises meant for people to live in, occupy or use gets a supply of pure and wholesome water.
- Principle 2. Fixtures, devices and appurtenances are supplied with water in sufficient volume.
- Principle 9. Plumbing is designed and constructed by Registered Master Plumbers.
- Principle 10. Each fixture directly connected to the drainage system is equipped with a water-sealed trap.
- Principle 11. The drainage system is designed so that air circulates in it and traps are not siphoned or lose their seal.
- Principle 12. Vent terminals extend to the outer air.
The sections that touch a house
Drag the drawing sideways to see all of it.
Section 107.1: the seal on the plan
Registered and Licensed Master Plumbers use their seal on all plumbing plans they prepare. That is why a building permit's plumbing sheets carry a master plumber's signature and seal, and why a plan a builder sketched for you is a sketch and not a plan. What a plan contains and what to check on yours is on our plumbing plan page.
Principle 10: a trap on every fixture
Each fixture connected to the drainage system gets a water-sealed trap. The trap is the bend that holds a little water and stops the smell of the drain coming up into the room. A CR that smells with nothing blocked is usually a floor drain built without one. Our guide to the floor drain with a trap shows it.
Principles 11 and 12, and section 311.4: vents
The drains are designed so air circulates in them and the traps are not siphoned empty, the vent pipes end in the outer air, and no vent pipe is used as a waste pipe or a waste pipe as a vent. In a house that means a pipe rising from the drain line and out through the roof. A toilet that gurgles when the sink empties is a drain with no vent, or a vent that was used as a waste pipe.
Section 306.2: rain stays out of the sewage line
Rainwater drains from roofs, inner courts, vent shafts and similar areas discharge outside the building or to the gutter, and may not be connected to the soil and waste pipe system. A downspout plumbed into the septic tank breaks this one, and it is the commonest breach we find: the tank fills every storm and the floor drains back up. Our guides to the alulod and downspout and the backwater valve cover what it does to a house.
How it fits with the Building Code
The National Building Code is Presidential Decree 1096 of 1977, which replaced the 1972 Building Code that had named the 1959 plumbing code as its referral code. Practitioners summarise the Revised Implementing Rules of PD 1096, section 302, as assigning each group of permit sheets to a profession: the plumbing sheets to a master plumber and the sanitary sheets to a sanitary engineer. The plumbing permit forms published by city and municipal building offices carry exactly that block, a master plumber signed and sealed as designer and another as the one in charge of the work. That summary is a practitioner's reading and not the text of the rules; the building official is the authority on what a particular permit needs.
What the code is not
It is not a price list, and nothing in it sets what a plumber charges. It is not a consumer guide and does not tell you how to fix a faucet. It is enforced through the building permit and the plumbing permit, by the local building official, not by the plumber who turns up at your door. And this page is not the code: it is a reader's summary of a handful of provisions, with the section numbers given so you can check them against a copy, written on 12 October 2026.
Questions about the plumbing code
- What is the plumbing code of the Philippines?
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The Revised National Plumbing Code of the Philippines, adopted by the Board for Master Plumbers of the Professional Regulation Commission through Resolution No. 04-99 of 30 September 1999 and approved by the President on 21 December 1999. It governs the practice of plumbing and the design, installation and use of plumbing fixtures and materials in the country. It replaced the 1959 National Plumbing Code.
- Is the 1999 plumbing code still the current one?
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Yes. On 12 October 2026 it was still the edition in use: the National Master Plumbers Association of the Philippines, the Professional Regulation Commission and the master plumber board-exam review material carried no later edition or replacement. The date at the top of this page says when it was last checked.
- What is RA 1378?
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Republic Act No. 1378, the Plumbing Law, ratified on 18 June 1955. It created the Board for Master Plumbers and regulates the trade of master plumber. The code is adopted under its section 4, so the law is the authority and the code is the rulebook issued under it.
- Where can I read the plumbing code?
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The printed book is published by the National Master Plumbers Association of the Philippines (NAMPAP). The adopting resolution, Board for Master Plumbers Resolution No. 04-99, is published in full on lawyerly.ph, a Philippine legal reference site.
- Can rainwater go into the septic tank under the code?
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No. Section 306.2 says rainwater from roofs, courts and similar areas discharges outside the building or to the gutter and may not be connected to the soil and waste pipe system. Every downspout belongs on a storm line to a catch basin and the canal.
- Who can sign a plumbing plan?
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Under section 107.1 of the code, a Registered and Licensed Master Plumber seals every plumbing plan they prepare, and the ninth basic principle says plumbing is designed and installed by Registered Master Plumbers. A building permit application carries the plumbing sheets signed and sealed that way.
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