NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo When I was in college, I dreamt about the Philippines I did not see. I wanted to explore the 81 provinces with my own eyes, to meet the Filipinos who live there, to find out their dreams and aspirations. As I jump from one province to the other, I realized that...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo A few years back while attending the Leaders in Development programme of Harvard Kennedy School, our professor asked us to write one thing which we aspired to achieve in the next ten years. We wrote it in a piece of paper and placed it beside our name card. I...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo In 2016 — when we started Build, Build, Build, critics said that the EDSA Decongestion Program is mathematically impossible, that it cannot be done, that President Rodrigo Duterte was over promising, and that Google Maps does not support such assertion. They...
NIGHT OWL Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo In 2011, the Asian Development Bank examined walkability and pedestrian facilities in Asian cities. It showed that in Manila, like Hanoi, a sizeable number of the trips could be made by foot and bicycle because the average distance traveled per trip is low. Data...
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...
