The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is expected to complete Phase 3 of its Nationwide Air Navigation Facility Modernization Project (NANFMP) by June this year, as it looks forward to finishing six other high-impact air transportation projects nationwide.

In a report to Malacanang, Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza said the NANFMP covered modernization works on the Laoag (Ilocos Norte) and Kalibo (Aklan) airport control towers.

Mendoza said civil works for the NANFMP are 63.66 percent complete. The project is backed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation’s (JBIC) 21^st Yen Loan Package.

By August 30, the development of the Davao International Airport would be finished, he said.

The Asian Development Bank-financed project is 91 percent complete, he added.

Still in Mindanao, the DOTC is due to start the development of at least six airports, covered under the Third Airports Development Project, later this year.

Mendoza named the airports as those in Puerto Princesa, to be developed starting August 2003 and completed in May 2005; Cotabato, Butuan, Dipolog, Pagadian, and Sanga-Sanga inn Tawi-Tawi, all to be developed starting November 2003 and completed in June 2005.

The development of the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental will start in June 2004 and will be completed in November 2007.

In the Visayas, to be developed under another JBIC-supported Selected Airports Development Project Phases I and II are the New Bacolod (Silay) Airport and the Tacloban Airport.

Work on the two Visayan airports will commence on January 2004. The New Bacolod airport is expected to be completed in June 2006 while the Tacloban airport, in February 2006.

Meanwhile, development works on the New Iloilo Airport will start in August this year and is due for completion in January 2006.

Many Filipinos believe that the country needs a working President more than a very popular one.

A recent survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS) shows that people continue to appreciate what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is doing to keep Filipinos safe from criminals and terrorists and to bring food, shelter, education, health and other vital social services at the doorstep of the poor.

The SWS survey was conducted from March 8 to 20, 2003.

In the survey, 46 percent of the respondents hailed the President’s commitment to place national security on top of her list of administrative priorities, in view of continuing threats from terrorists, insurgents and separatists.

Her no-nonsense handling of national security problems -- spawned by acts of terrorism perpetrated by the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, New People’s Army (NPA) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – has brought about relative peace in the countryside and spurred tourism and other socio-economic activities.

She has also offered to the NPA and the MILF the negotiation table wherein government and the rebel groups could talk and share ways to attain meaningful development and lasting peace, within the bounds of the Constitution and for the general interest of the people.

The SWS survey noted that the President gained a very impressive positive 15 net satisfaction rating under the issue of national security.

This was positive three points higher than the net satisfaction rating she received in another SWS survey on the same subject conducted from November 15 to December 2 last year.

The same SWS survey showed that the President maintained her positive five net satisfaction rating from the November 15-December 2, 2002 survey, under the issue of public safety administration.

Her concern over public safety is highlighted by her visits to critical transportation and telecommunication facilities and her well-received call for continued community vigilance and immediate action against criminals and other lawless elements.

But over and above all this, the SWS survey respondents noted the President’s ongoing comprehensive anti-poverty program, geared towards uplifting the welfare of poor Filipinos until 2010.

On the issue of helping the poor, the President garnered a net satisfaction rating of positive 15, six positive points higher than the positive nine rating she got in the November 15 to December 2, 2002 SWS survey.

Of note was the President’s immediate response to the socio-economic needs of victims of natural and man-made disasters, her bid to provide a million jobs before her term ends next year, her desire to provide shelter for the homeless, and her campaign to increase the delivery of basic services to the countryside and poor urban communities.

The Department of Health has taken exceptions to an assessment by the Singapore-based consultancy firm that the Philippines is "scarcely prepared" to deal with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) if the killer pneumonia finally gets into the country.

In a report, the DOH said that the result of a survey conducted by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) merely reflects the respondents’ "perception or subjective opinion" on the capability of our health system to respond to the SARS menace.

The PERC survey, conducted among 1,072 expatriate business executives in Asia, ranked the Philippines as seventh among the 12 Asian countries on their capability to deal with any outbreak of the disease, even below Hong Kong and Singapore, which are already hit severely by SARS.

On Monday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo branded as an "unfair putdown" the findings of PERC as she emphasized that the government is doing its best to keep the Philippines SARS-free.

The DOH said the most compelling proof on the effectiveness of the country’s preparedness is the fact that the Philippines remains SARS-free from March 18 up to the present, as corroborated by the objective findings of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The DOH cited several "objective criteria" that would belie PERC’s claims, among them the pro-active stance taken by the administration in dealing with the SARS problem.

It said that even if the country is still SARS-free, the President has created the SARS crisis management committee, headed by Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, to implement measures that would prevent the SARS threat from entering the country.

The President, the DOH said, has also made available a total of P1.5 billion to mitigate the impact of SARS in the country, with P0.5 billion to be released for the upgrading of the infrastructure, equipment and supplies of hospitals that will respond to SARS cases

Other measures undertaken by the DOH as part of its SARS prevention program are:

Total external trade in goods by the country for the first two months of the year amounted to $11.148 billion, 15 per cent higher than the $9.669 billion registered over the same period last year, according to the latest report released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

The bill for foreign-made merchandise grew by 30 percent to $5.734 billion from $4.409 billion while exports posted a year-on-year growth rate of 2.9 percent to an aggregate dollar revenue of $5.414 billion from $5.259 billion a year ago, according to the same NSO report.

Likewise, balance of trade deficit for the Philippines reached $319 million or 137.6 percent lower than last year’s $850 million.

The NSO said that with February imports going up by 21.4 percent, total merchandise trade for the month showed an increase of 12 percent to $5.540 billion from $4.498 billion during the same period last year.

Electronics and components accounted for 27.7 percent of the import bill, amounting to $740 million or 27.6 percent higher than last year’s $611.60 million.

Purchases of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials ranked second with 13 percent share with payments made placed at $364.69 million while office and EDP machines were the third top import worth $259.15 million.

The NSO report said that capital goods accounted for 40.9 percent of the aggregate bill, an increase of 32 percent to $1.151 billion from $872.53. The group was led by telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery valued at $633.25 million or a 22.3 percent share of the total.

The report said the payments for raw materials and intermediate goods consisting of unprocessed and semi-processed raw materials accounted for 37 percent of the aggregate bill as importation grew by two percent to $1.043 billion from last year’s figure at $1.023 billion.

Imports from Japan, the NSO reports said, accounted to 21 percent of the total import bill, growing by 23.4 percent to $590.12 million from $478.23 million a year earlier. On the other hand, exports to Japan amounted to $413.80 million yielding a two-way trade value of $1.004 billion and a trade deficit for the Philippines placed at $176.33 million.

The NSO said that the United States, the country’s second biggest source of imports, reported shipments valued at $573.22 million against exports amounting to $588.68 million. Total trade amounted to $1.162 billion while trade surplus in favor of the Philippines was placed at $15.46 million.

Singapore emerged as the next biggest source of imports with payments worth $191.74 million, an increase of 20.3 percent from $159.37 million. revenue from RP exports reached $164.35 million resulting to a total trade value of $356.09 million and a $27.39 million deficit for RP.