NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The economy of the Philippines is the world's 28th largest economy by GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) according to the 2018 estimate of the International Monetary Fund. Under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, Philippines recorded a GDP (PPP) of 956...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo In the last 28 years, I have survived an active firefight and a sinking boat. I have visited all the regions in my country. And I have seen it a few days after it was devastated by Typhoon Yolanda and the Marawi seige. Just last week, I was suppose to be in Sri...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The story of South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) Toll Road 4 (TR4) is a peculiar one. The project spanning 66.74 km broke ground for at least seven times. But Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar promised that the March 26 groundbreaking would be...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo When President Rodrigo Roa Duterte promised to ease Metro Manila traffic at the start of his term, he meant every word. At the onset, he tasked Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar to build a master plan that will connect all the cities in...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo According to World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.35 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes while at least 20 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result. More than half of all...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo When the construction of Mindanao Avenue Extension started, Melvin Navarro was a fresh graduate from college. Year after year — he would pass by the same alignment, which if completed would connect North Caloocan to both the North Luzon Expressway and Quezon City....
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo A total of 939.38 km of High-Standard Highways/Expressways are targeted to be implemented/constructed in Luzon, which is about twice the 382.26 km of existing expressways. Once completed, the travel time from Metro Manila to La Union will be reduced from six hours...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo While attending the 6th ASEAN Connectivity Forum in Seoul, I learned that during the 1960s, the Philippines had the second highest per capita income in Asia, behind only Japan. A decade after, South Korea had passed our country in per capita income terms, largely...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo Critics of the administration recently pointed out that over 180,000 families will be displaced in Metro Manila should the NLEX-SLEX Connector Road Project and the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) Project push through. This claim is fictitious, inaccurate, and...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo For 17 days, I travelled with 20 people from 14 different countries to five different states in America as part of the US Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP). The first time I met them — we were at the lobby of DC Churchill...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo Under the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar noted that the agency has built a total of 3,945 km of roads. DPWH has widened 1,908 km of roads, built 328 kilometer of bypasses and diversion...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo According to the World Risk Report, inadequate and inefficient infrastructure and weak logistic networks significantly increase the risk for an extreme natural hazard to backslide into a disaster. Philippines lies along the Pacific Typhoon Belt and is within the...
