The Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners – Qatar Chapter is composed of 34 members who were all SPLE passers from 2016-2019. It was formally established in 2019 and was recognized as a full-fledged International Chapter by the National Board of Trustees in 2020 through Board Resolution No. 11-005 Series of 2020.

It all started in 2016 wherein petitions for the Environmental Planners Licensure Exam were circulated and well received by the interested takers. In that same year, the first ever Special Professional Licensure Examination for Environmental Planners (SPLE-EnP) happened in Qatar!

In retrospect, Arch. Wilbern Bernardino spearheaded the very first EnP review class to cater to the needs of aspirants based in Qatar. Landscape Arch Ricardo Hilario, who served as the lead review lecturer, together with a group of selfless architects came together and the journey started to unfold. Both aspirants and mentors were bewildered on the scope of the exam. Apparently, it really is from “ridge to reef” as they say. Peculiar and lengthy reading materials (CLUP 1,2 and 3 and many more) were the weapons to muster for the grueling board exam. The support from all the UAP officers and members that time was truly remarkable.

By God’s grace, the first 9 Environmental Planners (Batch 2016-Magiting) emerged who then paid it forward by selflessly sharing their wisdom and knowledge to the succeeding EnP aspirants. The dream of being a PIEP chapter didn’t materialize that year though as membership requires 11 leaving us short of 2 more members.

The journey continued with Batch 2017-Maagap producing 4 new EnPs to join the flock. A year after, Batch 2018-Makisig added 5 more EnPs to the roster making the membership base rise to 18 which is more than enough to fulfill the chapter formation requirement. It was in the early months of 2019 when the application requirements for chapter formation were submitted. However, luck is still not on our side as our application was put on hold. 

This didn’t hinder the group to flourish as the most recent Batch 2019-Malikhain added 16 new EnPs, the highest number of passers in 4 years. Fast forward October 2019, as the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners celebrates 50 years of existence, Qatar has been formalized as the second chapter outside the Philippines. In 2020, Enp Mario Oligo joined the chapter. PIEP-Qatar has been a strong and active chapter of PIEP since then, and they have been recognized as the Best Chapter in 2021.