NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The first time I joined the President’s delegation — we were in Bicol region. Typhoon Nina, internationally known as Nock-ten, entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on December 23, 2016. It intensified into a typhoon on December 24 and made...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo Before my stint at “Build, Build, Build,” I worked with United Nations Development Program and Food and Agriculture Organization on their Typhoon Haiyan Response (locally known as Typhoon Yolanda). The first time I saw Tacloban (after the onslaught of Yolanda),...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo Metro Manila traffic has improved in recent months — but the “Build, Build, Build” team is not yet done. In the next 60 days, two bridges across Pasig River will open and is expected to decongest at least 50,000 vehicles out of EDSA and C5. The best part?...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo Of all the places — Palawan is one of the most memorable. The first time I went there, my boat sank and for almost an hour — we clung to a bamboo pole in the middle of the sea to survive. Ten years have passed and yet — I couldn’t forget the fateful night in...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo When I was in high school — I watched “The Bucketlist” with two of my closest friends — Karen Jumarang Tan and Chynna Cuna. It was a film staring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman about two terminally ill men on a road trip with a list of things to do...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo When Pigalo Bridge in Isabela was devastated by typhoons Pedring and Quiel in 2011, farmers who wanted to deliver their agricultural products to Manila or Tuguegarao had to take a 76-kilometer detour via Alicia-Angadanan-San Guillermo-Naguilian Road. Residents of...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo On our first few months in Department of Public Works and Highways, we have received the most number of complaints on Circumferential Road 6 — a toll free expressway we now call Laguna Lake Highway. At that time, it was full of large potholes — so large that we...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo When Secretary Mark Villar first assumed position in DPWH — he did not have a lot of public inspections. He would quietly go from one province to another — without any notice or advice. He would always tell us it was important to put the proper systems in place...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo Almost four years after President Rodrigo Duterte launched its “Build, Build, Build” program, Philippine government’s most ambitious infrastructure plan — computer-generated images which were once used to present a vision are turning into actual roads and...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo In 2017 — I attended the Emerging Leaders Program at the Harvard Kennedy School which was chaired by Dr. Elaine Kamarck and Dr. Christopher Robichaud. In our class on ethics — we discussed about the responsibilities of public action via a simulation exercise of...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,640 islands. Due to the lack of infrastructure investment in the last five decades — the cost to transport goods within the country has been expensive. The 2.1 km San Juanico Bridge, which was built in 1969, is still the...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The land area of Tokyo is thrice the size of Metro Manila but the vehicle density in Manila is higher. There are about 9.3 million vehicles competing in PH’s limited road network. In 2016, majority of the 32,770 km of national roads are at saturation levels —...
