Oh, where do I start?

It was around October when I had recently imported the barangay boundaries of my hometown, Cauayan City. I had just asked the GIS team at the local Planning and Development Office to adjust the boundaries again, as many issues were identified in the dataset. A while later, I had an idea to try to help the GIS team adjust the boundaries, because I figured, “Why not?” and they’re probably doing a lot of work already, given so many developments in the area.

A little back and forth, but then they stopped responding. I mean, it is basically a 50/50 chance that they respond or not. A little later, I dove into further research and stuff, and I thought of asking an institution to collaborate with me on making a dataset for the PDO to use and merge with theirs, so it can be as accurate as possible (I like things accurate).

Thus, Project Cadastral Cauayan (CaCau) was born. I first emailed the Isabela State University. I chose them especially because of the Cauayan Campus. In my eyes, they were the most capable (and probably only) institution in the area to pull this off.

It was February 27 of this year. No response, so I kept trying new email addresses, follow-ups, and at one point, Messenger. Too many alternatives with no response, and about two months later, nothing. Until finally, through the Cauayan Campus’ newspaper email, the Kawayan Communicator, a Messenger notification popped up. It was someone in the newspaper. A little back-and-forth communication, and another month passed, and I realized this person was unreliable.

Why do you ask? Because he kept delaying. He kept promising that he would bring it up to the offices and such, but never did. I pivoted. Where? Northeastern College, Santiago City, on May 23rd. They were the next closest academic institution in the area that could pull it off. From experience, I emailed their newspaper first. They first responded, but everything after that was pure silence. Another month came by, and the project went nowhere.

Once again, I pivoted. This time, to three. I first tried to contact the PDO once more, which led nowhere. The second one was the University of the Philippines - Department of Geodetic Engineering (UP DGE). They were very responsive, but they rejected it due to alignment reasons with their schedule, focus, etc. I also did them because of how much collaboration existed with OSM and the university. Lastly, was the Cagayan State University. Like always, no response.

It was now August 1. My final pivot, was private geodetic firms local to the city. Two of them. And you can predict what happens with the first one: nothing. They first responded, but then nothing else. The second one, was responsive, but like UP DGE, had rejected it due to alignment reasons.

I was tired by then. And school is eating up my schedule once more soon. So, I closed the project. After 5 and a half months of work, trying to get this project out of the mud, I couldn’t take it afloat anymore. I was also working remotely in Canada, so it is obvious that it also eats up some sleep space to try to align with the time gap.

But, in case, I will keep the files public. So if there is any interest into using the project and/or its files, then feel free to (as long as you comply with the licensing)!

My conclusion is: go as far as you can. This project isn’t failed because it never reached the finish line. It was a success, in research and evidence. It’s a success of the digital space.

Mabuhay, and god bless!