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

… See full entry

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

… See full entry

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

While I will be starting using changesets in Tagalog, sometimes along with English, I started providing a translation of a changeset comment to another regional language, for example, Cebuano, when doing an edit in a specific area in the Philippines where it is the dominant language. While translations to Cebuano can be easily provided through Google Translate, this is something that is problematic with other regional languages, like Ilocano, Bicolano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Chavacano, etc., as a possible translator may not be reliable enough to provide a grammatically correct translation that a local can understand. Are there any possible reliable online translators for other Philippine languages, like for those I pointed above?

It was since January 2016 when I requested to map the less mapped barangays in southwest San Pedro, Laguna, which includes Magsaysay, United Bayanihan, Riverside, Laram, and Langgam. But, now, this effort now came to fruition.

From July 2017, after doing ground mapping after visiting Langgam, the less mapped areas of San Pedro, Laguna, finally has grown. Several POIs have been added, plus street names. The main priority is the important POIs, like schools, barangay halls, and churches. I have uploaded a GPX track as a guide when someone wants to realign the roads there, that are traced from aerial imagery, that may be offset.

Here are some POIs added on the survey:

• Divine Gift School
• Vian Rechel Academy
• IETI
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• 7-Eleven (Magsaysay branch)
• San Pedro Relocation Area Cooperative
• United Bayanihan Community Church
• Alfamart (United Bayanihan branch)
• Ministop (United Bayanihan branch)
• Polytechnic University of the Philippines - San Pedro Campus
• Laguna Relocation Community School
• Upper Villages Christian Academy
• Laram Barangay Hall
• Most Holy Name of Jesus Parish
• United Montessorean School of San Pedro (Langgam campus)
• Jesus the Faithful Savior Christian School

Yet, several POIs and street names found on the survey are still not mapped, but can be mapped on following changesets. An update on the OSM Wiki page for San Pedro, Laguna provides all mapping updates (with dates for tracking latest updates). And for other POIs not found on the survey, I leave it to the other users (especially locals) to map, or note for others to resolve. The POIs added may start increased efforts to map the least mapped barangays of San Pedro.

Since starting mapping in 2015, Batangas City is still developing, and many newer developments have come. Much of the new developments are occurring along Diversion Road and the Batangas Port area. Subdivisions are growing into the suburban and rural barangays. Two new power plants have opened. But, current imagery used for mapping creates a problem to map these new developments. Though Bing announced imagery updates this 2017, it will be a long wait.

Developments to be mapped is shown below, along with description, notes, and status.

… See full entry

Mapping in Batangas City has been increasing after the LGU-led mapping from March to April, yet, it caused some problems in the current data because of mapping practice that looks like tagging for the renderer. Yet, aside from the LGU-led (Batangas City CPDO, CDRMMO, and OCVAS) mapping, there is a new surge of mapping activity in Batangas City. It is part of the MapTVPL activity in Batangas. One among who led the mapping is (GOwin)[osm.org/user/GOwin), who mapped Batangas State University, and the surrounding area. Batangas State Univerity’s map has improved, with some named streets inside added, buildings named, and new buildings mapped. It is also the same case for the adjacent Batangas National High School (BNHS), whose buildings have been named and more facilities inside mapped, since I started mapping it’s buildings, plus mapping during the NOAH-ISAIAH HOT task in Batangas.

It may be expected that the Batangas City LGU may start another mapping project, but should have to avoid problems with existing map data, especially buildings and POI’s. The rural barangays have improved, thanks to Batangas City employees contributions, with barangay halls, water supply tanks, schools and day care centers mapped, and a lot more must be expected. Marking the centers of barangays, using the newly added data from Batangas City LGU mapping, are still needed, and further mapping of other missing critical POI’s especially schools, as they serve as evacuation centers in times of calamities.

After Project NOAH-ISAIAH HOT tasks and also my rural mapping in Batangas City, there is also an increase in mapping critical POI’s in the rural barangays of Batangas City, either on the lowlands or the mountainside. Schools and barangay halls are being added in rural barangays, and using names of those newly added schools or barangay halls, I trace barangays and add the nodes for them via Level0 (instead of JOSM). Rural mapping, especially of critical POI’s and infrastructure, may be useful for disaster risk reduction and rural development. Before, Batangas City has the urban areas only mapped in detail, until Project NOAH-ISAIAH started a HOT task that added buildings not only in the lowland urban areas, but also in the rural areas.

Thanks to all the efforts of local mappers, especially “Brad-M”, “digmaan” and “imeeperezveedor”, the critical POI’s (schools, day care centers, barangay halls, health centers) and infrastructure (roads and buildings) of the rural barangays of Batangas City are being mapped in more detail, like the urban areas, especially the Poblacion area. And it is possible that the city’s government, via the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRMMO) or City Planning and Development Office, may lead such mapping for disaster preparedness and response, and rural development.

On the last few days, mapping activity around Batangas City, where I map a lot, from POI’s, power networks (NGCP and Meralco), and buildings, have been increasing. And while I added many POI’s and street names (mostly the very familiar ones) in that city, there is a lot still missing, that locals are working on. Some local users in Batangas City that started mapping their city includes:

• imeeperezveedor
• jonadelcrispin
• Brad-M (from the Banaba area)
• Angelique Tan
• crops production
• dunah
• GMMM
• Pranses
• mgjeanleyesa
• alain curt mazo
• Heneral-Hulab
• MjCat
• gberts
• OCVAS R&DC (owned by the Office of the City Veterinarian and Agriculturist/OCVAS in Bolbok)
• EDGF
• digmaan

Looking at their edit history, almost all are mapping within Batangas City, and are possibly local.

Yet, as they are still new, mapping mistakes may still occur, and they can be cleaned up once spotted. And increased mapping activity in Batangas City is good news that locals there are inspired to map, thanks to all my efforts to map there, and the mapping activity for Project NOAH-ISAIAH (now defunct from February 28, 2017, but validation work is still continuing). And looking at the Google Map Maker “graduation” at March 31, 2016, the number of OSM users mapping Batangas City may increase from this update.

The map of Batangas City is now filled with a lot of buildings. Before, there were only a few buildings, until I started large-scale mapping of that city (POIs, roads, buildings, land use, power distribution network, etc.) from there or at home, and Project NOAH-ISAIAH started a HOT project to map buildings in Batangas for disaster risk analysis. Thanks to my efforts, and those who participated in the Project NOAH-ISAIAH HOT project.

I am busy mapping Batangas City again this Christmas vacation, as continuation of my task of improving its map since I started to edit OpenStreetMap for most of the time. I have mapped Batangas City in Google Map Maker, but I am more encouraged to map Batangas City in OSM because of better data, in contrast to Google Maps, which I see as worse, as well as the Map Maker shutdown resulting from the “Android pissing on Apple” incident in Pakistan. Thankfully, I discovered OSM and I started to share my knowledge and improve it to its present state.

My updates on mapping Batangas City includes several mapping activities: updating, expanding, and improving the power lines in Batangas City, now focusing on NGCP’s 69 kV subtransmission system and 13.8 kV distribution system, and Meralco’s 7.97 kV and 13.8 kV distribution system and 69 kV subtransmission system, adding missing and new POI’s (adding the first Alfamart branch in Batangas City, some missing POI’s in P. Burgos Street at Poblacion, and adding missing businesses around Balagtas, Julian Pastor Memorial Market, and Cuta) and updating some POI’s, (renaming the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to follow the sign outside, verifying the name of a day care center in Cuta, near St. Bridget College, and adding the name of Eternal Gardens Batangas, which was missing before and missed out by my large-scale mapping activity last year) mapping sports facilities (basketball, badminton, and tennis courts, and a swimming pool in the Batangas Coliseum), and mapping buildings as part of Project NOAH-ISAIAH’s task for Batangas (HOT OSM project 1886).

… See full entry

With Typhoon Nina (international name: Nock-Ten) wreaking havoc last December 25 and 26, it sparked my interest to map areas hit by the typhoon. While wide-scale mapping still not starting in the wake of the typhoon, I now started mapping areas for disaster response.

I started mapping areas hit by Typhoon Nina first at Catanduanaes, where the typhoon made its first landfall. at Virac, the province’s capital, I have mapped many houses there, along with roads, schools, a church, and fishponds, along with paths within them. Fortunately, those areas I mapped have traceable Bing imagery, and I traced several POI’s, like two schools, and a Mormon church, which I recognized using the aerials.

While it is still a few days after Nina wreaked havoc, I have already started mapping for disaster response, and I expect that this may be followed by Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team projects, that may involve other mappers to map typhoon struck areas, especially on areas that lack quality aerial imagery, like most of Quezon, which has most part that lacks Bing coverage, but, Mapbox Satellite has, however, on some areas, imagery is not so fine, unless MapGive will have high-resolution imagery for mapping those typhoon-struck areas.Well, it would have been better that areas that will be affected by Typhoon Nina would have been mapped before, like what is done in Samar Island before Typhoon Ruby (Hagupit) struck Eastern Visayas and southern Luzon.

Here is the visualization of features I added/edited around Poblacion, Batangas City and nearby barangays:

…and for the whole city, including portions outside the city boundary:

… See full entry

This routes from Batangas City to Tunasan, Muntinlupa (Mapzen/OSRM] looks strange. Rather than taking Susana Heights/MCX Exit, Susana Heights Road, and National Road (Daang Maharlika), navigations directions tell you to exit at Carmona Exit and take Governor;s Drive, General Malvar Street and then turn left to National Highway (Daang Maharlika) northbound. My knowledge tells that the main route to Tunasan is via Susana Heights Exit. OSM routers still wants you to take Carmona Exit to Muntinlupa or San Pedro, and it looks like a routing issue.

Why is that happening? Can someone tell me reasons for that routing situation and possible road data fix-up?

I made many updates on Evia along Daang Hari in Almanza Dos, Las Pinas, along with some developments in Starmall Prima in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite. It was since many months I was not updated on developments of that mall owned by Vista Malls of Vistaland by former senator Manny Villar. I have only gone to Evia to eat at the McDonald’s store there or sometimes buy groceries at Rustan’s Fresh.

With an advantage to survey Evia after months, I added new developments in the mall, including new buildings, stores, restaurants, roads, and traffic direction on the parking areas, which are now pay parking areas. I also made a partial indoor map of the mall.

Following this update on Evia, which has been contributed by Schadow1 and me, I will make updates soon on Festival Mall in Alabang, when I have an advantage to visit and do a survey of new buildings of the mall on the River Park area.

Finally, I got a chance to map Bacoor and Imus, with two trips where I am able to survey those areas, the first being from NAIA Terminal 1 towards home, and the second from home to SM City Bacoor via Molino, Mambog, and Palico, SM City Bacoor towards S&R Membership Shopping in Imus, and S&R Membership Shopping towards homme.

On the first trip, my survey found a split, new traffic lights, and pedestrian overpass on Aguinaldo Boulevard, new traffic lights and marked motorcycle lane (marked by a blue line on the right lane) on Molino Boulevard, and new traffic signs, installed by the Department of Public Works and Highways Cavite District Engineering Office, showing destinations of several intersections on Molino Road. I already mapped the new traffic lights and destinations shown on the newly installed signs, and yet to map the split, traffic lights, and traffic lights on Aguinaldo Boulevard and the motorcycle lane on Molino Boulevard.

On the second trip, my survey found several missing business, missing business names, location of barangay boundaries on the Mambog area, a traffic light on the intersection on Aguinaldo Highway and Tirona Highway, an Alfamart branch near SM City Bacoor, a no left turn sign on the Aguinaldo Exit of SM City Bacoor,, a missing church along the Aguinaldo Highway, a welcome marker on the Bacoor-Imus boundary, several missing kilometer stones, a split and new traffic lights on Aguinaldo Highway near Tanzang Luma, missing barangays of Imus (like Bayang Luma, Patindig Araw, Anabu I-B, Anabu I-D, Anabu II-B, and Pasong Buaya 1), a missing name of an industrial area in Anabu, Imus, a S&R New York Style Pizza store inside S&R Membership Shopping in Imus, a missing Kawasaki motorcycle store, and a lot more. Most changes have been done,after that trip but a few is to be done soon.

… See full entry

Following a message sent by schadow1, I now started participating on mapping for #ProjectNOAH-ISAIAH. Currently, I started adding buildings on my barangay, San Antonio, in San Pedro, Laguna, as part of the mapping project. The only problem is what imagery to use. For example, Bing imagery of San Pedro, Laguna look much older, while Mapbox imagery (using DigitalGlobe imagery) is much reliable for adding buildings, but a few cloud covered areas make building mapping difficult. I prefer Mapbox imagery on mapping Metro Manila and northwest Laguna, but Batangas still do not have any reliable quality imagery (Batangas City’s imagery can be only seen at a high zoom level, and only Bing can be used, but parts of Batangas City, near Taysan is only seen at a high zoom level.) I am planning to extend that mapping work for #ProjectNOAH-ISAIAH to Batangas City and other areas in Batangas, but I am only limited to map areas with reliable quality imagery.