Wanted Volunteers and Data Contributors!

    PhilGIS needs you.

    Please help us build PhilGIS.  Share your GIS talents and data.  Make a difference for our beloved Philippines. 

    GIS experience is not necessary, but helpful.  We'll teach you as you go along. 

    If you have suggestions to improve PhilGIS, we'll be happy to hear those too.

    Get involved and gain experience in this exciting world of GIS!

Featured Volunteers

Cecil de Castro

Here's something about Cecil . . .

". . . on educational background, I got my BS Biology major in Ecology from UPLB, hopefully will graduate from my MS Environmental Science and Ecosystem Management from DLSU if I manage to finish my comprehensive exam this march. On jobs, I worked for an aquaculture company based in Palawan for 2 years.  I've been all over Palawan and lived on an island from time to time.  I was a Project Officer for an EU project and a Technical assistant for a UNDP project all on making sustainable development and protection plans for ancestral domains. . . I worked with around 30 Indigenous Peoples all over the country from Abra to Zamboanga . . I've been around a lot. . . the only place I haven't been is Region 8 which is the Samar Leyte area. I've crossed rivers, climbed mountains, walked for days, experienced huge waves, had been on a helicopter which had to make an emergency landing, took 14-hour bus trips, been "checked" at so many "checkpoints", been to so many places where other people would not dare go to, especially in Mindanao. . . so nothing would ever surprise or discourage me anymore. . . But on all my travels and encounters with so many kinds of people trying to bring "development" what I always remember is my Palawan days. And I'm always glad to hear news from my Pala'wan, Molbog and Muslim friends from Balabac. Working with them, I guess partly made who I am, professionally, at least. Mindanao is also a favorite place coming from Luzon (lived my entire life within Laguna and Metro Manila) I appreciated Mindanao more when I travel around there."

"...on my spare time? I work... I don't like doing nothing... I can't stay put... A typical desk job is not me. I'd die... I want to go out there and see and do things...and GIS. I'm really really working out things (schedule, etc) so I can learn violin and hone my piano skills..."

"Right now I'm with DAP [Development Academy of the Philippines] as senior technical staff at regional operations but I'm transferring to a new unit real soon, ..."

"I think I'm past my "idealistic" phase, ... but I will never outgrow wanting to contribute something to make things better. I've been on some kind of scholarship since high school up to my MS.  I think the world have been kind to me.  I have a nice life (on our, the poor people's, standards...).  So I also want others to make it.  There are a lot of brilliant people around they just need a little help... when I see those people, the ones who almost had nothing from places that the rest of the world forgot, have a spark of hope in their eyes or when I hear that they are slowly making it, ah its worth it..."

(Cecil has been the strong driving force behind the creation of PhilGIS. Initially, the planned coverage of the GIS data clearinghouse was limited only to the Agusan River Basin. Cecil - after some wrangling - finally convinced me to expand the idea to cover the entire Philippines.  I thought it was quite overwhelming at first knowing the magnitude of the work I have to tackle.  Well, after that difficult first infantile step, PhilGIS is now up and running.  Thanks much Cecil for your encouragement.  Indeed, you are a feisty and highly determined and persuasive person. - Al)

Rommel Maneja

Photo and bio coming soon.