CITY OF SAN FERNANDO?President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo bid newly installed Butil party-list Representative Agapito Guanlao good luck on Friday, giving him P10 million as his term?s ?buena mano (good start).?

On stage as she addressed some 300 farmers from Pampanga, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija gathered for Farmers? Day celebration, Arroyo turned to Guanlao and said in Kapampangan: ?As a buena mano for Congressman Guanlao, I?d like him to start a good project. I want this project to convert solid wastes into organic fertilizers.?

She then showed a check for P10 million, stressing thrice that the payee was not Guanlao but Butil. Organic fertilizer making will be done in the three provinces, especially in Pampanga, where the peasant movement began, she said.

The farmers broke into loud applause.

?Now is the time for action. This is the start of climate change management among our farmers,? Arroyo said before handing the check to Guanlao.

He assumed the post after the Supreme Court last month increased the number of party-list representatives from 17 to 55. This brought to two Butil?s seats in Congress. The other is Rep. Leonila Chavez.

In her speech, Arroyo told farmers that after fuel, methane gas from solid waste is the second biggest contributor to global warming.

She talked on the environmental aspect of agriculture after she discussed the assistance her administration has been extending to farmers and the role of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, in removing the shared tenancy scheme and starting land reform.

?I trust that Butil will work for the extension of the [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program] before Congress adjourns in June,? Arroyo said in the native language.

She said her administration also increased the volume of palay (rice seeds) bought from farmers from 33,000 metric tons to a million MT.

Village councilor Nestor Pablo, a farmer from Camba in Arayat, Pampanga, welcomed the project, saying the use of organic fertilizer would also save him money.

His two hectares need 16 bags of fertilizer every planting season, Pablo said. Each bag of commercial fertilizer costs P980.