Page 2 of 2 Previous Philippines National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) NAMRIA is the central mapping agency of Philippines, which is an archipelago of about 7,100 islands. Other agencies for generation of cadastral and topographic data are - 1) the Land Management Bureau (LMB)/Land Management Service (LMS) which are the technical agencies handling the cadastral survey and generating large-scale maps of lands classified as alienable and disposable (A&D); 2) the Land Registration Authority (LRA); and 3) the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as a special cadastral agency. NAMRIA currently is digitising the 1:50,000 paper maps. There are 653 sheets on 1:50,000 scale for the whole country. The digitisation work has started with the data on eastern side of the country since the region is more prone to floods; around 50% of work has been completed. There is no clear policy of the country as far as data acquisition or generation is concerned. There exist only operational guidelines. The major policies/laws that govern surveying and mapping operations and generation and dissemination of GIS data are - 1) Executive Order No. 192 (Reorganization Act of the Department of Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources); 2) DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) Administrative Order No. 31 (Guidelines in Implementing EO 192); 3) EO 45 (Adopting the Philippine Reference System of 1992 as the Standard Reference System for Surveys in the Philippines, as amended by EO 280 and EO 321); 4) DENR Administrative Order No. 2005-13 (Revised Guidelines for the Implementation of the Philippine Reference System of 1992); and 5) DENR Administrative Order No. 2006-12 (Guidelines on the Development and Management of a Standard Seamless National Digital Topographic Database). Organisatons and departments apply to NAMRIA for digital data. A Memorandum of Data Sharing is entered into and usage is done on the basis of terms and conditions in the memorandum. Broadly, reselling is banned and the agency or organisation found doing it may be "blacklisted". It is basically on the project basis that work on digitisation and creation of large-scale datasets take place. Local governing units have been provided 1:10,000 scale data but that too on their specific project requirements. Large scale data is available mainly for urban areas. NAMRIA coordinates with National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) for their remote sensing data needs specific to a given project. The NRSC and NAMRIA Photolaboratory were established through the ‘Republic of the Philippines-Australia Remote Sensing Project’. National Spatial Data Infrastructure Since 1993, the Philippines has been undertaking activities that will pave the way for the establishment of a NSDI. It started with the creation of an Inter-agency Task Force on Geographic Information (IATFGI) on April 15, 1993 by virtue of Memorandum Order No. 01-93 which was issued by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). With NAMRIA as Chair and the NSCB as Co-chair, the IATFGI was initially composed of the following seven member-agencies:
 Major users of spatial Information in Philippines Private Industry The major sources of base maps for the private companies are NAMRIA, the National Statistics Office (NSO), Commission on Elections and city/Municipal Planning Development Offices. The major private intiative in this field was when Intermap Technologies in 2004 generated data of whole of the Mindanao, one of the three major island groupings, the other two being Luzon and Visayas. Philippine Geomatics Association, Inc.(PhilGEO) is the prime organisation representing the private companies operating in the country. It started as the association of seventeen (17) companies but now has thirteen (13) members. Industry has some qualms on government policy; Dennis Nevara of Cybersoft and ex-Preisdent of PhilGEO comments “There should be an essential requirement of the non-native company to tie up with local players if it plans any project in the country; we too can deliver.” With inputs from Christoph Feldkoetter (Mekong River Commission), Anders Aberg (Swede Survey), Dennis Nevera (Cybersoft) and Linda SD Papa (NAMRIA).
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