ALMOST every applicant for a Philippine government job has to submit a Personal Data Sheet (CS Form
No. 212). When Sharmaigne Mabano sat down to fill out hers, the official form came as an Excel file,
which doesn’t open natively on a Mac.
She found an online PDS builder, filled in every section, and only then hit a paywall: about ₱60 for one day of access to download and edit, with no warning before she started. So she built her own.
“The coolest thing about being a programmer is that I can look at a paid service and think, I can probably build that
myself. That’s rewarding enough for me,” she said.
GovForms turns the PDS into plain, guided questions. As users answer, a live preview shows each entry
landing in the right box of the official form. When they’re done, they download a PDF built on the Civil Service Commission’s own template, ready to print, sign, and submit, with the Work Experience Sheet included.
Davao-born Mabano is a software developer who graduated cum laude in Computer Science from the University of the Philippines Mindanao in 2026. A DOST scholar, Mabano works across software engineering and machine
learning, holds an AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification, and completed four software and AI internships before graduating.
Drawing from her experience, Mabano designed and built GovForms alone in about a week.
The beta went live on Sept. 27, 2026, and drew 225 visitors in its first two days. The PDS is the most downloaded form so far.
“I want people to think of GovForms first whenever they need to fill out a government form. For now, I’m building what people ask for, especially BIR forms,” she said.
GovForms has since grown past the PDS. It now covers three BIR forms for freelancers and new employees, plus templates for everyday documents like an affidavit of loss and a special power of attorney. Everything is free, needs no account, and runs entirely in the browser: users’ answers are never sent to a server.
Next, Mabano plans to add the forms people request most, starting with more BIR forms, with the long-term goal of
covering most government forms Filipinos deal with.
“Taxpayers paid for my entire education. GovForms is my way of saying thank you, and I think a lot of Filipinos will
find it useful,” she added.
