Problem users, whether it be vandals, trolls, spammers, or undisclosed/”rogue” organized mapping projects, is considered a problem all across OSM, but I would like to bring up some top examples of notorious problem users and major incidents involving organized mapping groups from the Philippines. Such edits are a perennial problem in the Philippines OSM community, and particularly in the time of COVID, I think the extended mass quarantines has make this problem worse as more people will be spending time in front of their computer, laptop, cellphone or tablet. While we have a ticket system to monitor suspicious editing activity, I feel it’s kind of Wild Wild West in OSM in the Philippines; new users are increasing (usually ones who only edit a few features, usually in their home area, before riding off into sunset) and not everyone will be patrolling the map for fishy changesets.

Vandals/trolls

bryanpiczon

Long-term vandal, often adding fantasy features usually in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. Has abused multiple accounts. Mostly interested in power lines and roads. Also vandalized areas outside the Philippines,

Joey Samson

Vandalism related to speculative real estate and transportation projects, especially around Manila. Some edits resulted in mass deletions (e.g. a former movie theater south of Manila). Also pesters users to add admin boundaries. 2 accounts traced so far (1 deleted following block)

Niwre Erv Apotseg

Vandal from Mindanao. Mostly duplicated roads, but also have added fictional features. Comments often nonsensical alphabet soup. Had 3 sock puppets.

Mass copying from GMaps

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Just discovered this edit involving sections of the Skyway elevated highway, which is for me, much of another exercise of the mapping for the renderer, something to do with the editor being a Maps.me user (and major roads there generally use some shade of red and orange). Much of the Skyway is built as a road over a road due to space constraints in a very dense urban area like Manila (and is mapped as such), but on that edit and another previous edit by the same user, sections of it has been adjusted, the main argument being superimposition on some map renders such as those by Maps.me. I’m considering a revert of that plus its continuation for the reason of mapping for the renderer.

Last January, I’ve just came upon several newbie users in the Philippines who have accumulated over a thousand edits within a few days, adding a thousand POIs, which I discovered by comparing coverage, are more or less copyright violations from Google Maps (with some POIs being at completely odd spots, someting usual with GMaps in some places). I’ve been able to clean up a bunch of their edits, particularly those from a user named JP Baje and another working for a new ride-hail service in the Philippines, and asked the user about their source, but they never replied, and with their activity continuing unabated despite concerns from other fellow mappers back home, I have asked the DWG to have one of them blocked until they have read a message from the DWG addressing concerns. The other one hasn’t been blocked, and has stopped editing, but I’m trying to clean up their edits within my favourite locations while I’m trying to focus with mapping in Canada.

I have no idea why these fly-by-night editors would spring out here with the sole purpose of filling areas of several cities with POIs without providing their source, adding them one by one that make it hard to revert them in one huge sweep and disappearing later when the damage is done, but I think long and strict lockdowns (such as those in the Philippines) are driving this kind of mapping because in such situation, you can’t just go out of home – even within your neighbourhood – without having to present some form of travel authorization from the local government, or you’re a member of a demographic that is likely to get infected with COVID-19 (which in the Philippines, includes those under 14, above 60, or having a serious health condition as of the May 2021 quarantine restrictions) and I assume these users involved are unlikely to have been in those locations, before or during the mass quarantines. Any thoughts?

Though I am also involved on mapping in Canada, I still do not forget to keep updated with many infrastructure projects in the Philippines under the “Build, Build, Build” program under Rodrigo Duterte, as well as other major infrastructure projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) not covered. Here is a list of some Philippine infrastructure projects I am working on since then:

NLEX Harbor Link

This expressway has opened in March 1, 2019, but it required some tweaks, such as the curved sections in Karuhatan (Valenzuela), the sections on Philippine National Railways (PNR) right of way, and the C-3 interchange (connects to Radial Road 10, and scheduled to open by December 2019). There is significant work modifying or deleting buildings affected by the expressway’s construction, and modifying the future connection with Radial Road 10 (a directional T interchange for the spur that connects to Radial Road 10).

Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Laguna section)

There is adjustments at the rotunda (roundabout) on Mamplasan Exit with SLEX, the new southbound lanes of Laguna Boulevard is marked open (except it needs some on-the-ground verification by other mappers), and South Boulevard, which connects to South Forbes Park and Ayala Westgrove Heights in Silang is extended east toward Laguna Boulevard.

Metro Manila Subway

Construction of this subway line, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began in March 2019, with only the Quirino Highway and North Avenue to be constructed. The whole route has been mapped, but since most portions are to be constructed soon, only the Quirino-North Avenue segment has been tagged as under construction.

Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway

Thanks to new GPX tracks and partial coverage of Bing imagery, portions of the Binalonan-Pozorrubio leg of the expressway has been realigned, and the southbound ramps of the Pozorrubio interchange has been corrected

Candon Bypass Road

… See full entry

Once again, Batangas City’s map is growing again with updates, particularly on mapping building floors, addresses and names, missing buildings and POI’s, and land use zones.

Buildings

In order to improve 3D renderings of the city’s buildings, especially those in the Poblacion, number of floors are being added through on the ground work using Maps.me. In addition, tagging of building addresses are also done, as there are many buildings with known addresses that can be sighted on outdoor signage. Building numbering also exists, but not all buildings indicate them. Names of buildings are also one part of building map improvements, as the building name form one part of many POI addresses.

Not only missing building details are added, but also many missing buildings constructed or existent since the past year. I mapped new houses and apartments inside Duluhan in Cuta, and a new commercial building along Lt. Col. D. Atienza Street. Building remapping is also done to redraw buildings that does not align properly with the most recent images. As part of this, the building occupied by Novo Department Store is remapped using DigitalGlobe Standard imagery and physical survey.

Points of interest

Many POIs scattered on the urbanized Poblacion and Cuta areas are being added one by one, also on the ground using Maps.me.

Land use zones

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Batangas City’s map is slowly growing and updated, thanks to having MAPS.ME and imagery by DigitalGlobe through their API. Much efforts are on local updates, and an ongoing effort to map Meralco’s power network and public transport is being followed up, but most mapping is related to the local vicinity, especially POI’s

Local updates

Thanks for having Maps.Me, many POIs, particularly those in the Poblacion, can be added now while on the ground, and notes can be created at the same time, with uploading to the OSM database done when now connected to the Internet through WiFi, such as at home, on Plaza Mabini (which has public WiFi provided by Globe Telecom’s GoWiFi), or at the malls with free WiFi (such as SM City Batangas and Bay Mall, though the former has time-limited WiFi service).

Upon hearing of an area around Calicanto called “Lawas”, I soon added a note for it around the area called as such.

One latest update is a future bridge between Ferry, Kumintang Ibaba, and Gulod Labac, which I added to OSM after hearing the news of such construction during the All Saints’ Day vacation. The bridge is now mapped here as this

Being least detailed over the area along Route 436, I made some mapping of Lourdes Subdivision in Bolbok after attending a funeral service in Mt. Zion Memorial Park. I added a school (Princeton Science School), a home-based ‘‘lomi’’ restaurant, and a small Christian church, which is shown in this changeset. Further changes, like naming a street on the same area, adding an annex campus of a public school (Bolbok Elementary School), and correction the location of Princeton Science School, are done after returning back to Batangas City for Christmas.

… See full entry