NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo When the construction of Skyway Stage 3 started, I was a freshmen in law school. Almost every day, I’d pass by the same alignment which, if completed, would cut travel time from North Luzon Expressway to South Luzon Expressway from 2.5 hours to only 30 minutes. At...
Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo If you are a thalassophile like me, then you’ll love the newly completed Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), an 89.31 km expressway connecting Tarlac, Pangasinan, and La Union. Whether you’re surfing in San Juan, or cliff-diving in Tangadan Falls in San...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo The problem surrounding the 90-year-old Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), — a 23.8 km circumferential highway — needs no introduction. The project which was started in the 1930’s has long exceeded its maximum capacity of 288,000 vehicles a day. Now, there...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The novel coronavirus has disrupted the global economy within just a few weeks. The pandemic has locked down cities, brought travel and tourism to a near standstill and disrupted life in an unimaginable way. What were considered the most mundane activities two...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo On my first night in self-quarantine, one of my classmates — Dr. Melvin Sanicas, a physician and scientist working as medical director, dropped me a personal message in Facebook: “Anna, What happened? Hope it’s not serious. Get well soon.” It was a start of...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo To effectively usher in the Golden Age of Infrastructure, the Philippine government under President Rodrigo Duterte increased infrastructure spending from 5.4 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017, to a possible 7.3 percent by the end of...
Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The story of EDSA need not be told. Anyone who have stepped in Manila would know — and would have complained at some point — about the world’s worst city for drivers. While other nationalities would ask about the weather, Filipinos would talk about the traffic. This is...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo Construction of Epifanio de Los Santos Avenue, more popularly known as EDSA, started in the 1930s. Initially, the project, which was named North-South Circumferential Road, only spanned from North Luzon Expressway to Magallanes Interchange. It was only in the...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program is composed of thousands of projects meant to connect, facilitate growth in 81 provinces, 18 regions around the country with an estimated cost of about P8 trillion. In the Department of Public Works...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo A Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) report released in 2012 indicated that the Philippines lost P2.4 billion a day due to traffic congestion in Metro Manila. Six years after, a study conducted by JICA said the number had gone up to P3.5 billion. Now,...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo In The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) 2018 Infrascope Report, the Philippines ranked second in the Asia Infrascope Index, “a benchmarking tool that evaluates the capacity of countries to implement sustainable and efficient public-private partnerships (PPPs).”...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo The “Build, Build, Build” program is the Duterte administration’s medium-term goal to increase infrastructure spending from 5.4 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017, to 7.3 percent by the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in...
