In the Philippines, a tower crane is legal only when a test certificate, a certified operator and a permit agree

▌  INDUSTRY BRIEFING  ·  OCTOBER 2026  ·  PHILIPPINES DOLE

In the Philippines, a tower crane is legal only when a test certificate, a certified operator and a permit agree

The Philippines has regulated lifting on construction sites since the Occupational Safety and Health Standards were issued in 1978 under the Labor Code and revised through the 1989 edition, which is still the text in force. The construction-specific layer came later: DOLE Department Order No. 13, Series of 1998, issued on 23 July 1998, requires every unit of heavy equipment — a crane is named in its own definition — to be tested and certified before commissioning, and every operator to pass a trade test prescribed by TESDA. The newest layer took effect on 16 May 2025, when Department Order No. 252, Series of 2025 revised the implementing rules of Republic Act No. 11058, the OSH Law.

These layers do not contradict each other. But a crane on a Philippine site now has to satisfy three separate documents at once: a test certificate for the steel, a national certificate for the person at the controls, and a permit to operate the lifting equipment itself. In 2026, DOLE began pricing the gap between them — and the arithmetic was not small.

▌  01  THE TWO DATES

▌  IN FORCE SINCE 23 JULY 1998  DO 13-98 is the construction-specific baseline. It defines heavy equipment as any machine with an engine or electric motor used for lifting, excavating, levelling, drilling, compacting, transporting or breaking, with a minimum operating weight and horsepower rating of 1,000 kg and 10 HP respectively. Section 10.1(b) requires every unit to be tested and certified against standards prepared by DOLE, or by a DOLE-recognised organisation, prior to commissioning.

▌  EFFECTIVE 16 MAY 2025  DO 252-25 was signed on 28 April 2025, published on 1 May 2025 and took effect fifteen days later, on 16 May 2025. It revises the IRR of RA 11058 and, unlike a construction-only text, applies to establishments, projects and sites across micro, small, medium and large enterprises, including co-working spaces and high-risk sectors such as construction, mining and energy.

▌  02  WHAT THE 1989 OSHS STILL REQUIRES OF A CRANE

▌  RULE 1410 IS THE CONSTRUCTION RULE  Rule 1410 (Construction Safety) sits inside the OSHS. Rule 1411 defines a Mobile Crane as “a crane capable of travelling under its own power”, a Lifting Appliance as a crab, winch, pulley block or gin wheel used for raising or lowering, and Lifting Gear as a chain sling, rope sling, ring, link, hook, shackle, swivel or eyebolt. Those three definitions decide which rule an inspector applies to your equipment.

▌  RULE 1415.01: SOUND STEEL, WEEKLY INSPECTION  Every lifting appliance, including working gear and all other plant equipment used for anchoring or fixing, must be of good mechanical construction, of sound material and of adequate strength for the load it will carry, and must be properly maintained and inspected at least once a week. The result of that inspection goes into a log book maintained by the employer or user of the equipment and open to the enforcing authority.

▌  A BRAKE, A MARKED CONTROL, A MARKED LOAD  Every crane, crab and winch must have a brake that prevents the load from falling. Control handles must carry a locking device and be clearly marked as to their purpose and method of operation. Safe working loads must be plainly marked, nothing may be loaded beyond its rated capacity, and lifting appliances may only be operated by persons who are trained, competent, physically fit and authorised.

▌  03  WHO MAY OPERATE IT

▌  THE OPERATOR NEEDS A TESDA CERTIFICATE  DO 13-98 Section 10.1(a) provides that all heavy equipment operators assigned to a project site must be tested and certified in accordance with a standard trade test prescribed by TESDA in coordination with its accredited organisations. Daily routine inspection must be performed by duly certified mechanics and operators, against standards TESDA sets with the Association of Construction Equipment Lessors (ACEL).

▌  TOWER CRANE NC II, THEN NC III  TESDA’s Training Regulations for Heavy-Equipment Operation (Tower Crane) NC II were promulgated in December 2004 and July 2007, under Board Resolution No. 2007-20 of 27 August 2007. At its 117th board meeting on 7 November 2019, TESDA amended the qualification to Tower Crane NC III (Resolution No. 2019-64), and renewal of an existing NC II now requires assessment against the amended NC III. Training Regulations take effect fifteen days after publication.

▌  THE SCAFFOLD PRECEDENT: COMPETENT PERSON  DO 128-13 of 30 April 2013 amended Rule 1414 and gave the OSHS a working definition of Competent Person: one who is capable of identifying existing and potential hazards and who has the authority to take prompt corrective action, and who must hold Scaffold Erector NC II and COSH training. Scaffolds over six metres require structural engineer approval, and scaffold erection, inspection and dismantling must be done by competent personnel. The order took effect fifteen days after publication.

▌  04  THE 2025 LAYER: DO 252-25

▌  ONE ORDER, EVERY WORKPLACE  DO 252-25 strengthens enforcement across all workplaces and requires OSH programmes calibrated to industry type, economic activity and establishment size, together with the designation of qualified safety officers and health personnel. The earlier RA 11058 framework grades safety officers in four levels, from an eight-hour orientation course to a forty-hour BOSH certificate and beyond.

▌  FREE PPE AND A RIGHT TO REFUSE  The revised IRR makes personal protective equipment free at the point of use, gives workers the right to refuse unsafe work and to report hazards without retaliation, and requires welfare facilities and emergency medical supplies. Non-compliance escalates through administrative fines, while establishments with exemplary practice can qualify for incentives.

▌  ENFORCEMENT HAS ALREADY BEEN PRICED  In June 2026, DOLE ordered the owner and contractor of a collapsed nine-storey building in Angeles City, Pampanga to pay PHP10,324,000 in administrative fines under RA 11058, on top of PHP1,102,798 in labour standards violations. Among the cited failures: no permit to operate the mechanical lifting equipment on site, no PPE, no safety officers or first aiders, and certificates that DOLE found fake and invalid.

▌  THE COMPLIANCE BASELINE  DOLE reported that in 2025 it inspected 33,007 establishments covering 3.7 million workers and recorded a 90.06 per cent compliance rate on OSH standards, alongside 541 OSH trainings covering nearly 22,000 workers. The revised IRR is aimed at the establishments inside the remaining tenth.

▌  05  WHO INSPECTS THE STEEL

▌  TESTING IS A THIRD-PARTY JOB  DO 13-98 Section 10.1(b) requires heavy equipment to be tested and certified before commissioning. In practice, cranes are inspected and load-tested by a DOLE-accredited testing organisation rather than by the operator’s own employer, and the load test is the certificate the site has to produce.

▌  ACCREDITATION SITS WITH OSHC  DOLE Administrative Order No. 407-17, issued in 2017, moved the accreditation of construction heavy equipment testing organisations to the Occupational Safety and Health Center. An accredited body carries an OSHC construction heavy equipment accreditation number and issues the third-party technical safety inspection and load-test certificate that a project files.

▌  A CODE OF PRACTICE FOR TOWER CRANES  DOLE-OSHC maintains a Code of Practice for Tower Crane Safety that runs from crane selection and equipment requirements through erection, climbing, telescoping and dismantling, to inspection, testing, maintenance and hand signals. It is the practical companion to the statutory rule, and it is written for the site rather than the courtroom.

▌  06  WHAT IT MEANS WHEN YOU SPECIFY OR BUY

●  Who signs the weekly Rule 1415.01 log book — the owner, the lessor or the site safety officer?

●  If the crane arrives with a factory test report but no DOLE-accredited load test, whose certificate does the site actually file?

●  Who holds the permit to operate the mechanical lifting equipment: the equipment owner, the rental company or the contractor?

●  Does a load-moment limiter fitted after commissioning become part of the lifting appliance that must be logged every week?

●  If the operator’s TESDA certificate expires mid-project, who is legally expected to stop the lift?

●  When a machine moves between project sites, does the previous site’s test certificate travel with it?

▌  07  WHAT TO WATCH

●  The first willful-violation fines under DO 252-25 will set the benchmark; the Angeles City order of June 2026 is the template.

●  Permits to operate mechanical lifting equipment are the newest inspection line item and the easiest to find missing at the gate.

●  Load-testing capacity is the practical constraint: DOLE-accredited testing organisations are the bottleneck, not the legal text.

●  The TESDA transition from Tower Crane NC II to NC III will surface on operator rosters and renewal schedules, not in the statute.

●  The DOLE-OSHC code of practice for tower cranes is likely to become the document an inspector quotes at the gate.

This briefing summarises Philippine national rules. It is not legal advice, and local rules still govern your site.

ABOUT

Shandong Zhinuo (ZNAQ) designs and manufactures tower crane safety monitoring systems and lifting-safety hardware for export markets, including load-moment limiting, zone-control and anti-collision functions that are increasingly software-defined, and we follow national lifting frameworks as inspection moves from the certificate to the site record.

▌  CONTACT  shandongzhinuo@outlook.com  +86 176 6371 0314 · en.znaqkj.com

SOURCES

Department of Labor and Employment, Department Order No. 13, Series of 1998 — ilo.org

Department of Labor and Employment, Department Order No. 252, Series of 2025 — bwc.dole.gov.ph

Bureau of Working Conditions, Occupational Safety and Health Standards, Rule 1410 — dole.gov.ph

Department of Labor and Employment, Department Order No. 128-13 (Rule 1414, Scaffoldings) — legaldex.com

Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Training Regulations, Tower Crane NC II / NC III — tesda.gov.ph

Occupational Safety and Health Center, accreditation of construction heavy equipment testing organisations — oshc.dole.gov.ph

Philippine News Agency, DO 252-25 and Angeles City enforcement order — pna.gov.ph

Philippine Information Agency, briefings on the revised OSH IRR — pia.gov.ph