Night Owl (book)

Night Owl: A Nationbuilder's Manual is a 2021 memoir authored by former Build Build Build Committee Chairperson Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, providing a narrative of the Philippines' infrastructure policy from 2016 to 2022.

Background
Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual is the debut book of Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, a Filipino government official who served as Chairperson of the Build Build Build Committee and Spokesperson of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), under the leadership of former DPWH Secretary and now Senator Mark Villar.

In the book, she goes into the details of the Build Build Build program from its inception in 2016 up to the accomplishments of 2021 when Villar resigned from the DPWH to run for senator.

Lamentillo shares first-hand knowledge of both the high and low points of the program, such as the COVID-19 pandemic which temporarily halted the construction of projects and pushed back timelines, but its eventual resumption was said to be a key driver of the Philippines’ economic recovery. She also attempts to refute claims of the program’s critics.

The title of the book was patterned after her bi-weekly column’s name, Night Owl, in the Op-Ed section of the Manila Bulletin, where she has been writing for eight years.

Content
In releasing the book in December 2021, Lamentillo described it as a “tribute to all the brains behind the Philippines’ Golden Age of Infrastructure, and dedicated to all 6.5 million Filipino workers who have turned Build, Build, Build from vision to reality.”

It includes forewords from former President Duterte, former Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, and Senator Mark Villar.

First Edition Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual was first launched in December 2021 with 11 chapters and 366 pages.

Second Edition The second edition was published in 2022 but was officially launched in March 2023 together with the Filipino Edition. It has 12 chapters and 375 pages. In the 12th chapter, Lamentillo narrates how she came back to public service through the DICT and the Marcos Jr. administration’s follow through of the Build Build Build via Build Better More with a digital infrastructure component

Summary
The book is written in Lamentillo’s perspective as Build Build Build Committee chairperson. She attributes to the 6.5 million Filipinos the completion of all the infrastructure projects that were built between 2016 and 2021—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

She injects personal anecdotes in an attempt to provide a better understanding of what most of the projects have to go through prior to commencement of the construction up to the eventual completion.

Highlights




EDSA Decongestion Program
The EDSA Decongestion Program is a masterplan aimed at creating alternative routes in Metro Manila to hopefully ease traffic along the 90-year-old highway that has exceeded its maximum capacity of 288,000 vehicles a day. It consists of 25 infrastructure projects, both roads and bridges, either newly constructed, rehabilitated, widened or improved—such as the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, the NLEX Harbor Link C3-R10 Section, the Radial Road 10, the Fort Bonifacio-Nichols Field Road, the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge, and the Laguna Lake Highway.

Connecting Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao via land travel
The Mega Bridge Project is a masterplan aimed at linking the three main islands of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao via land travel. Included in the masterplan are the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge, the Panglao-Tagbilaran City Offshore Connector Bridge, the Guicam Bridge, the Panay-Guimaras-Negros Island Bridge, the Cebu-Mactan Bridge and Coastal Road Construction Project, the Panguil Bay Bridge and the Samal Island-Davao City Connector Bridge.

Reforms
The book claims that ghost projects were eliminated through drone monitoring and satellite technology. The Infra-Track App provides DPWH with real-time updates on the status of projects by plotting photos submitted for monitoring in the exact geographic coordinates where they were taken even prior to project implementation stage.

Lamentillo explains in the book that the problem of acquiring the right-of-way (ROW), which is usually the culprit that prolongs an infrastructure project’s commencement or completion, was addressed during the program implementation through the creation of Right-of-Way Task Forces for each of the projects being implemented, and the decentralization of the ROW acquisition functions so that regional offices were capacitated with their own right-of-way division.

Marawi siege
In the aftermath of the Marawi siege, the DPWH was among the agencies that formed the Task Force Bangon Marawi to carry out a rehabilitation plan for the city that was destroyed by months of war.

In the book, Lamentillo provided updates on the construction of the infrastructure projects for Marawi rehabilitation.

COVID-19
The book details how Build Build Build supposedly helped mitigate COVID-19’s impact on the country’s economy through sustained public investment and jobs creation.

Among the program’s accomplishments are the retrofitting and upgrading of existing facilities to become COVID-19 isolation centers and dormitories for hospital workers, as well as the construction of modular hospitals to accommodate patients with severe symptoms.

Release details (English)
In English, Night Owl has been released in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audio versions. The book was published by Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation in December 10, 2021


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Translations
Apart from the English original, Night Owl: A Nationbuilder's Manual has been translated into three languages: Tagalog, Ilokano, and Bisaya . Manila Bulletin is expected to release the Hiligaynon Edition in 2024.