Custom software for urban planners in the Philippines
TL;DR
Nova Gov builds custom software around the CLUP, CDP and zoning workflow of one LGU planning office or one planning consultancy: trackers, templates, review portals, dashboards and reports that you specify. We do not prepare or sign plans (RA 10587 reserves that to licensed environmental planners) and we do not replace QGIS or ArcGIS. We are pre-pilot: no signed government customers and no production deployments yet. Start with a free 30-minute workflow call. If there is a fit, you get a written scope and a fixed quote.
Planning work has three layers: the licensed planner who writes and signs the plan, the GIS software that draws the maps, and the workflow around both, meaning who owes which data, which study is late, and which version went to review. If that third layer lives in spreadsheets, logbooks and chat threads, it is the layer this page is about. Para sa CPDO, MPDO, PPDO at mga planning consultancy: software sa paligid ng inyong workflow, hindi kapalit ng licensed planner.
| Who it is for | LGU planning offices (CPDO, MPDO, PPDO) and private planning consultancies |
|---|---|
| What we build | Scoped custom software around your own workflow and your own data |
| What we do not do | Prepare or sign plans; replace QGIS or ArcGIS |
| The offer | A free 30-minute workflow call, then a written scope and a fixed quote |
| Price list? | None. Each build is quoted per scope |
| Status | Pre-pilot: no signed government customers and no production deployments yet |
| Legal anchors | RA 10587 (practice of environmental planning) · RA 7160 · EO 72 (s. 1993) · RA 12009 (procurement) |
What exists today, what we build, and what we do not do
Status first, so you can weigh the rest of this page. This is our own review of what is deployed, as of October 11, 2026.
| Status | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Live and public | The CLUP Checker requirements list, a 20-section, 5-study checklist drawn from the HLURB CLUP Guidebook and common DHSUD review practice (the counts are Nova Gov's own checklist structure, not a number DHSUD publishes; running a validation needs a pilot login). The CLUP Readiness Self-Check (8 questions). The CLUP glossary and requirements pages. 143 province and LGU pages. A directory of posted municipal CLUP documents for Laguna, Cavite and Rizal, with a script that re-opens each link to catch link rot. Human-led document digitization (done-for-you scanning, encoding and map digitizing; handwritten and older pages are encoded by a person, not automated OCR). |
| Sample data only | The demo dashboard, a sample hazard map for four LGUs, a zone-conflict check, the LandFast public pages and an Urban Planning Command Center preview. None of it shows a real LGU's data. |
| Built, behind a pilot login, no users yet | An ordinance drafter, CLUP insight and policy brief tools, a DILG report tool, CLUP narrative analysis, an LGU dashboard, a business permit tracker and an SGLG scorer. No LGU uses them today, so we do not offer them as proven products. |
| Not built | Shapefile, GeoTIFF or PostGIS ingestion. CLUP section drafting. Annex generation. Analysis of your GIS layers. Integrations with other platforms or LGU portals. Live MGB, PHIVOLCS or PAGASA hazard feeds. 3D or digital twin. Continuous CLUP compliance tracking. Auto-generated DILG-format reports. |
What we build
Scoped custom software around your own workflow and your own data, as paid work. Typical shapes:
- Data-request trackers: who was asked for which sectoral dataset, when it is due, what came back.
- Milestone trackers on a CLUP: stages, owners, dates and attached documents, for example following the 12 steps of the HLURB CLUP Guidebook from organizing to monitoring and evaluation.
- Sectoral-study templates: one consistent structure per study, with the review checklist your office or firm defines.
- Map QA: checklists and review workflows that record which map sheets were checked against the plan text. Reading GIS files such as shapefiles is not built yet and would be scoped into the build.
- Review portals: one place for comments, versions and approvals between the planning office, the consultant and reviewers.
- Dashboards and reports in the format you specify.
None of these exists as a packaged product today. Each one is scoped, quoted and built for one office or one firm.
What we do not do
- We do not prepare or sign plans. RA 10587, the Environmental Planning Act of 2013, requires registration for anyone who practices or offers to practice environmental planning (Sec. 14). Its scope of practice includes plan preparation for comprehensive land-use plans and for zoning and related ordinances (Sec. 5), and it makes it unlawful to offer or render those services without being a registered and licensed environmental planner (Sec. 31). We are a software company, not a planning practice.
- We do not replace QGIS or ArcGIS. Your GIS stays your GIS.
- We do not offer live hazard feeds, 3D models or a digital twin.
- We do not claim customers, results or savings. There are none to show yet.
For LGU planning offices (CPDO, MPDO, PPDO)
RA 7160 makes a planning and development coordinator mandatory in every provincial, city and municipal government (Sec. 476). The coordinator's listed duties include integrating and coordinating the sectoral plans and studies of different functional groups or agencies, and preparing comprehensive plans and other development planning documents for the local development council. The duties below come from the law, an executive order and a DHSUD circular. What a tool could do about them is our proposal, not a claim about your office.
Where the paperwork sits
| Duty or step | What the source says | A scoped tool could |
|---|---|---|
| Integrate sectoral plans and studies | The planning and development coordinator integrates and coordinates the sectoral plans and studies of the different functional groups or agencies (RA 7160, Sec. 476(b)). | Track which office owes which dataset, due dates and versions received. |
| Adopt the CLUP and route it for review | The sangguniang bayan or panlungsod adopts the CLUP (RA 7160, Secs. 447, 458). The sangguniang panlalawigan reviews the CLUPs of component cities and municipalities and adopts a provincial land use plan (RA 7160, Sec. 468; EO 72, s. 1993, Sec. 2). Provinces, highly urbanized cities and independent component cities go through the regional committee and national ratification. Review is to be completed within three months of receipt (EO 72, s. 1993, Sec. 2). | Keep a milestone tracker that shows the review route, dates sent and received, and what was returned. |
| Issue locational clearances | Cities and municipalities with reviewed and approved CLUPs issue locational clearances for locally significant projects (EO 72, s. 1993, Sec. 3(a)). | Run a clearance log tied to the zoning map and ordinance, searchable by project, location and date. |
| Midterm review of the CLUP | DHSUD circular 2025-018, as announced by DILG: a standardized 12-year CLUP planning period with a mandatory midterm review in the 6th year. | Track which studies need a refresh and which data requests that triggers. |
We cite the circular through a DILG field office announcement of it. Check DHSUD's issuance for the exact text and the date it takes effect for your LGU. More on the 12-year period: CLUP validity period.
Check what already exists before you buy
Some tools already exist, and some are described by their own publishers as free (QGIS, DMS4LGUs, LGUSS). The eLGU post we read gives no cost. Their published descriptions cover mapping, permits, documents and records. None describes a CLUP workflow tracker or a zoning clearance log, so check whether they cover your need:
- QGIS: free and open source GIS, licensed under GNU GPLv2+, for Windows, Mac and Linux.
- eLGU (DICT): an online service platform for business, building and working permits, community tax certificates, civil registry documents and barangay business clearances. A DILG Calabarzon post of October 22, 2025 says 41 cities and 901 municipalities were using it as of the latest report.
- DMS4LGUs (DILG): a document management system for LGUs, with guidelines in DILG MC 2026-034 (June 9, 2026). DILG says it will provide the system free of charge to all LGUs.
- LGUSS (DILG): a support system that, per its own site, aims to provide LGUs a free digital platform. The module list on its site includes issuance management, property management, disaster preparedness and report management. It does not list a CLUP or zoning module.
If one of these already does the job, use it.
Two ways to start
- The Founding Partner program. This is the Nova Gov platform pilot, free for the first year. It is not a custom build. Its terms are on Founding Partner and the pilot page.
- A paid, scoped build. After the free call you get a written scope and a fixed quote. Buying it is a procurement decision, covered next.
Buying a paid build: what RA 12009 says
RA 12009, the New Government Procurement Act, applies to the procurement of goods, infrastructure projects and consulting services by national agencies and LGUs (Sec. 4). Which category a software build falls under, and which mode applies, is for your Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) to decide. We can give you a written scope and a fixed quote, but we do not write your technical specifications (see the last point below). What the text lets us say for sure:
- Competitive bidding is one of eleven modes listed in Sec. 26. The others are limited source bidding, competitive dialogue, unsolicited offer with bid matching, direct contracting, direct acquisition, repeat order, small value procurement, negotiated procurement, direct sales and direct procurement for science, technology and innovation.
- Small value procurement asks for at least three price quotations, and one quotation is enough to proceed with evaluation. The ceiling is ₱2,000,000 for national agencies. For LGUs, the IRR table sets ceilings by LGU class and type (below), and the GPPB can adjust them. Splitting a contract to get under a ceiling is prohibited (RA 12009, Sec. 39).
- Competitive dialogue is available when conditions such as a complex purchase (major ICT projects are named as an example), a need for prior negotiations, or specifications the procuring entity cannot sufficiently define are present (IRR Sec. 29.2).
- Before it prepares its Project Procurement Management Plan (PPMP), the procuring entity conducts market scoping, which may include consultations with suppliers (IRR Sec. 10). Specifications are developed by the end-user unit and are based on performance or functionality requirements, product or service standards, or industry standards, with brand names allowed only for stated technical reasons (IRR Sec. 11). Under the same IRR, a bidder who took part as a consultant in preparing the design or technical specifications of what is bid out is treated as having a general conflict of interest (Sec. 81.2(e)). That is why we do not write your specifications. Whether and how a call like ours counts as market scoping is for your end-user unit, procurement unit and BAC to decide (the end-user unit keeps the record of market scoping results, Sec. 10.5).
| LGU class | Province | City | Municipality |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st class | 2,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 400,000 |
| 2nd class | 2,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 400,000 |
| 3rd class | 2,000,000 | 1,600,000 | 400,000 |
| 4th class | 1,600,000 | 1,200,000 | 200,000 |
| 5th class | 1,200,000 | 800,000 | 200,000 |
This is a summary of public law, not legal advice. Your BAC, and where needed the GPPB, decide which mode fits.
For planning consultancies
If you run CLUP, CDP and zoning ordinance work across several LGUs, the same chores repeat in every engagement: data requests, sectoral studies, map checks, review rounds, and different review routes for municipalities, cities and provinces (EO 72, Sec. 2). Software can hold that workflow together. It does not write the plan.
| Chore | A scoped build could |
|---|---|
| Data requests to LGU offices and agencies | Give you one tracker across all your engagements, with due dates and what has come back. |
| Sectoral studies | Hold study templates your firm defines, so every study follows the same structure and review checklist. |
| Map checks | Keep a map QA checklist and a log of what was checked, by sheet and version. Reading GIS layers is not built yet and would be scoped per build. |
| Review rounds | Run a review portal for comments and versions between your firm, the LGU planning office and reviewers. |
| Reporting to the LGUs you serve | Produce dashboards and status reports in the format you specify. |
- Priced per build, as software. A fixed quote per scope. Never a share of your planning fee.
- The licensed planner of record stays yours. RA 10587 makes it unlawful to sign documents not actually prepared by the signer (Sec. 31). Our software never signs or seals anything.
How it works
This is how we work. It is not a record of past projects, because we have none to show yet (see Where we are).
- Free 30-minute workflow call. We ask where your workflow lives today, who touches it, what goes wrong, and what you already use (QGIS, ArcGIS, eLGU, DMS4LGUs). If a free tool covers it, we say so.
- Written scope and fixed quote. The scope lists what the tool does and does not do, the data you hand over, the milestones and the price for that scope.
- Milestone builds on your own data. We build in stages against your own files, and you review each milestone before the next one starts.
- Handover terms in the scope. What you receive at handover, including exports of your data, is written into the scope before work starts.
What it costs
Walang price list. We quote per scope after the free call, and the quote is fixed for that scope. Software is priced as software: for consultancies, never a share of the planning fee.
What moves a quote
- How many workflows are in the scope.
- Whether your data is on paper or in inconsistent files. Records can be digitized through our human-led document digitization service, quoted separately.
- How many users and how many LGUs it serves.
- Whether any GIS file reading is needed, since that is not built yet.
- The support period you want.
Ask any vendor, including us, exactly what a quote covers and what it does not. The platform pilot terms (free for the first year) are separate and sit on the pilot page and Founding Partner. This page is about custom builds.
Where we are
Pre-pilot: no signed government customers and no production deployments yet. We say it up front because a procurement officer or a firm partner should know it before booking a call. The work that does exist, and that you can open today:
- CLUP Checker: the requirements list (running a validation needs a pilot login).
- CLUP Readiness Self-Check: eight questions, no sign-up.
- The municipal CLUP document directory on the Laguna, Cavite and Rizal pages.
- Document digitization: done-for-you scanning, encoding and map digitizing; handwritten and older pages are encoded by a person.
- Demo dashboard: sample data only. It does not show a real LGU.
Frequently asked questions
Magkano ang custom software para sa planning office o consultancy?
Walang price list. Pagkatapos ng libreng 30-minute workflow call, gagawa kami ng written scope at fixed quote para sa scope na iyon. Nakadepende ang presyo sa dami ng workflow na isasama, kung papel o digital ang data na ibibigay ninyo, sa bilang ng users at LGUs, at sa support period na gusto ninyo. Ang presyo ay para sa software mismo, hindi bahagi ng planning fee ng sinumang licensed planner.
Can an LGU buy custom software without public bidding?
Only if the procurement law allows it for that purchase, and your Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) decides that, not us. RA 12009, the New Government Procurement Act, lists eleven modes of procurement in Sec. 26, and competitive bidding is only one of them. Small value procurement, which asks for at least three price quotations, has a ceiling: in the IRR table (1st edition, as of 30 March 2026) it is ₱400,000 for a 1st to 3rd class municipality and ₱200,000 for a 4th or 5th class municipality, with higher ceilings for cities and provinces, and the GPPB may adjust them. Splitting a contract to stay under a ceiling is prohibited (Sec. 39). Competitive dialogue is another mode, available when conditions such as a complex purchase or specifications that cannot be sufficiently defined are present. We can give you a written scope and quote, but we do not write your technical specifications: the IRR treats a bidder who took part as a consultant in preparing the specifications of what is bid out as having a conflict of interest (Sec. 81.2(e)). We do not advise on skipping bidding.
Is there free urban planning software for LGUs?
Yes, for some jobs. QGIS is free and open source (GNU GPLv2+) and handles mapping and analysis. DILG says it will provide its DMS4LGUs document management system free of charge to all LGUs, and its LGUSS aims to provide a free digital platform for LGUs. DICT's eLGU system is another national tool, for online permits and civil registry documents. None of their published descriptions mentions a CLUP workflow tracker or a zoning clearance log, so check whether they cover your need before you pay for anything, including from us.
Do you replace QGIS or ArcGIS?
No. Keep your GIS. Our software sits around your mapping work: trackers, checklists, review portals and reports. Reading GIS files such as shapefiles is not built yet. If you need it, it would be scoped and quoted as part of your build.
Gumagawa ba kayo ng CLUP o CDP para sa LGU?
Hindi. Hindi kami gumagawa o pumipirma ng CLUP, CDP o zoning ordinance. Sa ilalim ng RA 10587, ang practice of environmental planning, kasama ang plan preparation para sa comprehensive land-use plans at zoning ordinances, ay para lamang sa mga rehistrado at lisensyadong environmental planner (Secs. 5, 14 at 31). Software para sa workflow sa paligid ng plano ang ginagawa namin. Ang licensed planner pa rin ang gumagawa at pumipirma.
How is consultancy pricing structured?
Per build, as software, with a fixed quote for each scope. It is never a share of your planning fee and it is not tied to the value of your engagements. After the free 30-minute call you get a written scope, and the quote covers only what that scope lists. If you serve several LGUs, one build can cover the workflow across your engagements, or you can scope one build per engagement. That choice is part of the scope.
Do you already have LGU customers?
No. We are pre-pilot: no signed government customers and no production deployments yet. What exists today is the public tooling described on this page, such as the CLUP Checker requirements list, the readiness self-check and the municipal CLUP document directory for Laguna, Cavite and Rizal, plus a sample-data demo. Ask about status on the free call. We would rather you hear it from us before you book.
Who owns the data and code?
Ownership and licensing terms are set in the written scope before any work starts.
Related guides
Sources (read 2026-10-11)
- RA 10587, Environmental Planning Act of 2013 (Lawphil): Secs. 5, 14, 31.
- RA 7160, Local Government Code of 1991 (Lawphil): Secs. 447, 458, 468, 476.
- Executive Order No. 72, s. 1993 (Lawphil): Secs. 1 to 3.
- RA 12009, New Government Procurement Act (Lawphil): Secs. 4, 26, 34, 39.
- Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 12009, 1st edition, as of 30 March 2026 (GPPB): Secs. 10, 11, 29, 34, 81.
- HLURB CLUP Guidebook 2013-2014, Volume 1 (copy hosted by the Oriental Mindoro provincial government): the 12-step planning process.
- DILG Catanduanes, October 9, 2025: announcement of DHSUD circular 2025-018 on the standardized 12-year CLUP planning period and 6th-year midterm review.
- DILG Issuances Archive: lists MC No. 2026-034, DMS4LGUs guidelines, June 9, 2026.
- DILG Western Visayas, July 14, 2026: DMS4LGUs launch, free of charge to all LGUs.
- DILG Calabarzon, October 22, 2025: eLGU services and adoption.
- Local Government Unit Support System (LGUSS): DILG initiative that aims to provide LGUs a free digital platform, and its module list.
- QGIS.org: free and open source, licensed under GNU GPLv2+.
Book the free 30-minute workflow call
Tell us where your CLUP, CDP or zoning workflow gets stuck. If a free tool covers it, we will say so. If it does not, you get a written scope and a fixed quote.
Book the free call Run the CLUP Readiness Self-CheckIndependent private software platform by Zentarai Labs LLC. Not a government agency; not government-endorsed.