An Airport Disposal Committee will decide on how to utilize the Bacolod airport site once the New Bacolod (Silay) Airport Development Project in Brgy. Bagtic is completed in 2007.

Assistant Secretary Ricardo Tan of the Department of Transportation of Communication, who is a committee member, said the body has yet to finalize on what to do with the 40-hectare property.

He said that 50 percent of the area belongs to the Philippine Airlines.

Construction boom in Mid East
expected to benefit more OFWs

The construction boom in the Middle Eastern countries of Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates is seen to boost employment opportunities for overseas Filipino workers, the Department of Labor and Employment said.

Citing a report of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said in a statement that a recent joint government-private sector marketing mission to the Middle East disclosed that construction projects have been booming in these countries particularly in Qatar, which is gearing for the Asian Games in December 2006.

Bishops to Arroyo:
Repeal mining law

MANILA - Catholic bishops in the Philippines yesterday urged President Gloria Arroyo to work to repeal a law that opened up the mining industry to foreign firms, citing environmental concerns.

The politically influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines in a message delivered after a national conference said "adverse social impacts" would far outweigh a boom in the mining industry. "We reaffirm our stand for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995," the conclave said.

The bishops said it was the people's basic right to tap natural resources and allowing big mining companies access to these "amounts to violating their right to life."

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