By Alexander Villafania, loQal.ph
PASIG CITY, METRO MANILA – Several government agencies are mounting a project that will build school furniture such as tables and chairs out of illegally cut logs.
The “P-Noy Bayanihan” project is joined by the Department of Education (DepEd), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) will provide the P100 million in funding for the project.
All four agencies recently signed a memorandum of agreement for the project at the PAGCOR office. The DENR and DepEd had previous engagements on making school furniture out of confiscated logs.
In fact, the DENR has in its inventory over 17,608 cubic meters of confiscated logs. This is equivalent to 7.47 million board feet of wood and the DENR has already donated at least 790,000 board feet of wood.
While the P-Noy Bayanihan project is targeted primarily at solving the problem of furniture shortage in schools, it is also intended to establish livelihood opportunities for small operations that produce furniture.
Ten production sites managed by TESDA will make the furniture for DepEd.
The project is expected to generate several hundred employment opportunities in communities near these production sites. The demand for school furniture is such that the DepEd spends about P1 billion every year for such items.
DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro stressed that the involvement of PAGCOR, DENR, and TESDA should help resolve a huge portion of the school furniture shortage among public schools.
This would result in children performing better in school as they feel more comfortable sitting on classroom chairs.
