THE Philippines remains a fairly attractive destination for investors despite the crippling effects of recent natural disasters and the Maguindanao massacre.

Still, most investors have been exercising caution ahead of the May presidential elections, according to the latest quarterly investor survey by Dutch financial giant ING.

In its Investor Dashboard Survey, ING described the country?s performance to be ?fairly steady,? as the Philippine investor confidence index slipped by a mere notch to 134 in the fourth quarter of 2009 from 135 in the previous quarter.

The same ING survey also showed that the percentage of investors who believe that the upcoming elections in the Philippines could have a negative effect on the economy increased to 24 percent in the fourth quarter from 15 percent in the third quarter of last year.

But the number of respondents who believe that the elections would have a negative impact on their investment portfolio decreased from 33 to 23 percent over the same comparative period.

ING reported that political conflict and natural disasters greatly affected perception of the country in the final quarter of 2009.

?With significant losses following one of the worst flooding disasters in the country?s history, increases in commodity prices and in the number of unemployed are potentially expected scenarios. The impact of natural disasters, along with widespread news of a political mass murder in Mindanao, may have been key factors in the weakened consumer sentiment in the fourth quarter 2009, as well as in the flattening of investor optimism and confidence,? ING said.