Filipino EPC construction and commissioning workforce

From project schedule to crew plan

We start from your manpower histogram, not from a job title: which trades, how many, which month, which certifications on day one, who the employer of record is (you or your subcontractor). Each phase becomes a recruitment round in Makati with its own trade tests — spool fabrication from isometrics and 6G pipe welds for the piping phase, structural welds and fit-up for structural, loop checks and cable termination for E&I — and its own mobilisation wave.

How we test the construction trades

• Pipefitters — read an isometric, fabricate a spool to tolerance, fit it up. Pipe welders — 6G in your process and material (GTAW root/SMAW fill on carbon steel; stainless and duplex where you need them), coupons bend-tested.
• Structural welders and fabricators — mark-out, cut, fabricate from drawings; FCAW/SAW plate in position.
• Scaffolders and riggers — erect to a drawing, execute a lift plan with sling selection and signalling; crane candidates tested on the machine.
• Blasters and applicators — surface preparation to Sa 2½, coating to specification, DFT measured.
• E&I installers and pre-commissioning technicians — cable routing and termination, loop check, motor control.

Your welding engineer or construction manager watches live and interviews the same day; formal qualification is confirmed at your site.

Certifications, safety and the Philippine side

Certifications, plainly: candidates with prior OPITO BOSIET/FOET, H2S, confined-space, CompEx, NEBOSH and other project-specific certifications are available — validity and project acceptance are verified candidate by candidate, never assumed for a crew. Welder qualification to ASME IX or API 1104, operator approvals, hazardous-area authorisations and offshore safety modules are issued or confirmed at your site or in the destination before mobilisation; we pre-test in Manila to the same parameters so that step confirms rather than filters.

Not just trade-tested — site-ready. Every oil and gas crew we present is screened on the safety behaviours operators audit, in the English the audit is conducted in:

• permit-to-work awareness and hot-work discipline
• lock-out/tag-out and safe isolation
• confined-space awareness and gas testing
• working at height, lifting and rigging to a lift plan
• H2S awareness where relevant; process-safety fundamentals
• stop-work authority and incident reporting in English

Candidates from Aramco, ADNOC and QatarEnergy contractor sites arrive with this culture; we verify it in a recorded scenario, and destination inductions complete it.

Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024). Your company — or the EPC or maintenance contractor that employs the crew — is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office for the destination (Riyadh, Jeddah or Al-Khobar; Doha; Dubai or Abu Dhabi; Kuwait; Muscat; Manama; or the office covering your European country), and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. The Philippine ban on direct hiring applies; the employer is always your company, directly.

Everything here is subject to the permit, certification and HSE requirements of the destination country and the operator.

Frequently asked questions

• Stainless and duplex pipe welders?

  Yes — screened and tested separately; duplex experience comes mainly from Gulf and Korean fabrication backgrounds.

• Can you phase a 600-person package?

  Yes — phase by phase against the histogram, each wave with its own trade tests, under one MWO accreditation per employer.

• Who qualifies the welders?

  Your site or fabrication yard, to ASME IX or API 1104; we pre-test to the same process, position and material so the site test confirms.