Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual (English)

Night Owl offers a comprehensive look at the Build Build Build Program – President Rodrigo Duterte’s medium term development strategy to effectively usher in Philippines ’Golden Age of Infrastructure. It follows and provides a first hand narrative of the daunting details of tasks, reforms, and projects undertaken by Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar. Night Owl sheds light into the difficult challenges, critiques, and difficult decisions faced by the Build Build Build team and dives into the consequences subsequently.

Witness heartwarming stories of Filipinos whose lives have improved with the completion of roads, bridges, rail, flood control projects, airports, seaports and classrooms. Night Owl is a compelling visual and informative storytelling of Philippine’s journey of change and transformation as it rally Philippines from a tiger cub economy to a first world country.

Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo currently serves as Undersecretary for Public Affairs and Foreign Relations in the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). She is also the Department’s spokesperson and focal person for presidential and cabinet directives. Prior to this, she was Assistant Secretary of the Department under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

As Undersecretary, she is in charge of DICT’s strategic communications and media, international relations, and legislative affairs. She supervises the Department’s Information and Strategic Communications Division (ISCD), International Cooperation Division (ICD), Legislative Liaison Division (LLD), Unified Project Management Office (UPMO), and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) unit.

She is also spearheading the Department’s efforts relative to Build Better More, in coordination with other government agencies, to support the President’s vision of a truly digital Philippines. Likewise, she acts as DICT’s data privacy officer, facilitates the resolution of Freedom of Information requests, and supervises the Consumer Complaint Center.

During the Duterte Administration, Lamentillo was the chairperson of the Build, Build, Build Committee of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the concurrent chairperson of the Infrastructure Cluster Communications Committee. She also worked with both the United Nations Development Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in their Haiyan Emergency Response and Rehabilitation Program.

She graduated cum laude at the University of the Philippines Los Banos in 2012 with a degree of Development Communications, where she garnered the highest General Weighted Average for Development Journalism Majors and received the Faculty Medal for Academic Excellence. She completed her Executive Education in Economic Development at Harvard Kennedy School in 2018 and her Juris Doctor program at the UP College of Law in 2020. At present, she is actively engaged in the pursuit of an Executive MsC in Cities at the London School of Economics.

2In 2023, she became an officer of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) with the rank of Auxiliary Commodore (one-star rank).

She has been awarded Natatanging Iskolar Para sa Bayan and Oblation Statute for the Virtues of Industry and Magnanimity. In 2019, the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association bestowed upon her the Veritas Medal. She was named by BluPrint as one of 50 ASEAN movers and shakers, by Lifestyle Asia as one of 18 Game Changers, and by People Asia as one of 2019’s Women of Style and Substance. She maintains a column in the Op-Ed section of Manila Bulletin and Esquire Magazine.

She authored a book titled "Night Owl: A Nationbuilder's Manual," which was published by Manila Bulletin. This book has been translated into four languages, namely Tagalog, Bisaya, Hiligaynon, and Ilokano.