Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary and former Build, Build, Build committee chair Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo presented a copy of the Night Owl book's second edition to Senator Mark A. Villar.
“Much was accomplished by the DPWH under the leadership of Senator Mark Villar,” Lamentillo said in a statement.
Villar was the Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) during the time of former President Rodrigo Duterte's Build, Build, Build program, which is the topic of Lamentillo's book.
Lamentillo noted that Night Owl is “about the Philippines' Golden Age of Infrastructure and somehow, it is like a journal of our work together—both triumphs and challenges—in the DPWH and Build, Build, Build.”
The Build, Build, Build program was able to accomplish 29,264 kilometers of roads, 5,950 bridges, 11,340 flood mitigation structures, 222 evacuation centers, 150,149 classrooms, 214 airport projects, and 451 seaport projects within a period of five years.
Lamentillo noted Villar also pushed for reforms in the DPWH to “increase efficiency and to find solutions to lingering problems on right-of-way, ghost projects, and unmet deadlines.”
Villar, she added, was also “eager to finish as many projects as possible, guided by the vision and political will of President Duterte, because he knows the importance of roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure projects in improving lives, creating jobs, providing opportunities, promoting peace, and spreading development in the countryside.”