President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will continue to implement all worthwhile projects started by her predecessors and a few of her own that she had initiated in Region 2, she said yesterday in a radio interview broadcast throughout the region.

Among the projects started before her, the President cited the Cagayan Export Processing Zone, environmental protection that will enhance industry, agriculture and other livelihood programs in the communities.

Under study is a railway from Cagayan Valley to the Ilocos Region to facilitate the movement of goods in the region, the President said.

The President also bared the expansion of the roll on-roll off (Ro-Ro) transport system to the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela. She thanked the governors of Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora and Quezon for setting up a consortium to make possible the Cagayan-Isabela-Aurora-Quezon Nautical Lines.

RO-RO will contribute greatly to the development of the local economy and tourism and consequently provide more jobs, the President explained.

In Mindanao, where RO-RO was first started, the costs of transporting goods like copra, rice, corn and vegetables went down by 30 percent, she said, to emphasize one of the benefits producers will realize from the RO-RO that also facilitates the movement of products.

The President also enumerated the achievements of her administration in the region:

• 349,000 residents are covered by the Philhealth program;
• more than 179,000 were employed in the agricultural sector;
• 55 school buildings were constructed, 21 in Cagayan, 25 in Isabela, seven in Nueva Vizcaya, and two in Quirino, and
• 223 barangays were provided with electricity.

The President also said she released P35 million to the provincial coordinators of the region to help offset the damaged caused by typhoon "Harurot."

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today lauded Manny Pacquiao for his resounding victory over universally recognized featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Pacquiao, the reigning International Boxing Federation junior featherweight champion who moved up a division to fight the Mexican, scored a surprising but totally convincing TKO victory in the 11^th round of the scheduled 12-rounder.

"Sunodsunod ang karangalan na binibigay ni Pacquiao kaya pinagmamalaki natin siya, (He’s been giving us a lot of honors, that’s why we are so proud of him)," the President said via phone on television after the telecast of the fight.

"I will call him by phone to personally congratulate him," the President said.

She also said she is happy whenever Pacquiao comes home after his victories because he shares his winning with the less fortunate.

Barrera’s corner stepped into the ring to stop the carnage. Official time was 2:56 of the 11^th round.

The referee scored a knockdown for Barrera in the first round although it was more of a slip.