Reference Guide

Free Philippine GIS & GeoJSON Data Directory

A comprehensive technical guide to finding, evaluating, and downloading free administrative boundaries, topographic layers, and demographic spatial data in the Philippines.

1. The State of Open Spatial Data in the Philippines

For data scientists, urban planners, cartographers, and journalists, acquiring accurate Philippine geographic boundaries has historically been an exercise in frustration. While executive mandates such as Executive Order No. 2, s. 2016 (Freedom of Information) and the Philippine Geomatics Act encourage open civic data, actual distribution remains fragmented across disconnected government portals, non-profit repositories, and academic archives.

This directory categorizes the most reliable open spatial data sources for the Philippines, assessing each for boundary precision, update cadence, coordinate projection, and licensing terms.

2. Official Government Repositories

NAMRIA (National Mapping and Resource Information Authority)

Statutory Authority

Portal: geoportal.gov.ph (Philippine Geoportal)

NAMRIA is the central mapping agency of the Philippine government under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The Philippine Geoportal distributes base topographic maps, nautical charts, administrative boundary datasets, and satellite imagery layers.

Available Formats: WMS/WFS endpoints, Shapefiles (zipped), KML

Coordinate System: PRS92 (PTM Zones I–V) and WGS84

Caveats: Download links occasionally experience downtime; higher-resolution contour layers require formal FOI data requests.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)

Census & PSGC

Portal: psa.gov.ph & openstat.psa.gov.ph

The PSA maintains the definitive masterlist of the Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC). Through the OpenSTAT portal and census releases (POPCEN 2015, 2020, 2024), the PSA publishes official population counts, household demographics, and poverty incidence metrics that map directly to PSGC join keys.

Available Formats: Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx), CSV tables, PDF summaries

Coordinate System: Non-spatial tabular data (joined via PSGC code)

Best For: Sourcing official demographic, economic, and agricultural census baselines.

3. Community & Global Open-Data Archives

OpenStreetMap Philippines & Geofabrik Extracts

ODbL License

Portal: download.geofabrik.de/asia/philippines.html

The local OpenStreetMap (OSM) community in the Philippines is among the most active mapping groups in Southeast Asia. Geofabrik provides daily updated spatial extracts of the entire Philippine road network, waterways, points of interest, building footprints, and transit infrastructure.

Available Formats: .osm.pbf, Shapefile archives (.shp.zip)

Coordinate System: WGS84 (EPSG:4326)

Best For: Routing algorithms, transit terminals, and infrastructure mapping.

Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX / UN OCHA)

COD-AB Standard

Portal: data.humdata.org (Philippines Common Operational Datasets)

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) maintains the Common Operational Datasets for Administrative Boundaries (COD-AB) for disaster response. This repository contains clean, simplified administrative boundaries down to Barangay Level (Admin 4).

Available Formats: GeoJSON, ESRI Shapefile, GeoPackage, TopoJSON

Coordinate System: WGS84 (EPSG:4326)

Best For: Disaster risk modeling, relief distribution planning, and choropleth analysis.

PhilGIS (Philippine GIS Data Clearinghouse)

Community Archive

Portal: philgis.org

A longstanding community portal offering free downloads of regional, provincial, and municipal boundaries, climate classification zones, protected areas, and watershed limits. While some files date back to earlier census rounds, they provide excellent baseline reference geometries.

Available Formats: ESRI Shapefiles (.zip)

Coordinate System: Mixed (WGS84 and PRS92)

Caveats: Verify attribute tables for recent LGU splits (e.g. Maguindanao del Norte/Sur).

4. Checklist: Evaluating Philippine GIS Files

Before using any downloaded GIS boundary layer in production applications or academic publications, verify these four criteria:

Boundary Dispute Handling: Many Philippine LGUs have unresolved territorial boundaries (e.g., Makati vs. Taguig over the Enlisted Men's Barrios / Fort Bonifacio; boundary disputes in Pasig/Cainta). Verify whether your dataset reflects the Supreme Court of the Philippines ruling (G.R. No. 235316).
Coastline Simplification & Island Completeness: Because the Philippines consists of over 7,641 islands, uncompressed high-resolution shapefiles can exceed 200MB. For web display, use Douglas-Peucker simplification (via Mapshaper or Turf.js) while ensuring tiny island barangays are not completely removed.
Coordinate System Consistency: Ensure all layers share the same Spatial Reference System. If overlaying GPS data, transform projected PRS92 layers into unprojected WGS84 decimal degrees (EPSG:4326).
Standardized PSGC Join Keys: Avoid joining census data on LGU names alone. Names have variant spellings (e.g., "City of Isabela" vs "Isabela City"). Always use 9-digit or 10-digit PSGC codes as join keys.