Hot logs-turned-armchairs on its way to public schools

Armchairs manufactured from confiscated logs are now underway to public schools that are suffering from shortage of furniture.??
 
On Monday, a total of 500 armchairs were delivered to Ramon Magsaysay High School in Cubao, Quezon City to augment the need for chairs of Metro Manila’s one of the most-populated schools.??
 
The turnover of the chairs also marked the start of the week-long celebration of the 17th anniversary of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), one of the lead government agencies in the education and livelihood project dubbed P-Noy Bayanihan.??
 
Attending the turnover were Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin Luistro, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) President and Chief Operating

Officer Jorge Sarmiento and officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).??
 
“Public schools have long suffered from the perennial shortage of furniture such as chairs. We are glad to be in a project such as the P-Noy Bayanihan that will help address this,” TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva said.??
 
Earlier, Luistro said public schools have a shortage of 2, 573, 212 chairs and desks this year.??
 
Villanueva said the new project would help address the deficit while helping the government save money for other projects.??
 
PAGCOR allocated a P100 million fund for the project to make use of the logs confiscated by the DENR from various provinces. TESDA in turn helped set-up working sites and tapped its skilled graduates to produce armchairs from the logs.
 
DepEd provided the design of the furniture and identified the recipient schools, and will be in charge of the deliveries.

"While helping eradicate the backlog of school armchairs, P-NOY Bayanihan will also provide livelihood opportunities to communities where the production sites are located, thereby generating employment among qualified workers," Villanueva said.?
 
Villanueva said that once the equipment from PAGCOR are in place, TESDA targets to produce about 20,000 units per month, and expects to produce about 260,000 chairs from the seven million board feet of wood confiscated from the Caraga region.
 
After Ramon Magsaysay High School, another 500 units of armchairs will be ready for delivery to DepEd’s recipient schools.
 
Public schools in the Caraga region, which has armchair shortage of 40,000, are also among the identified beneficiaries of the project.??Several provinces in southern Philippines have substantial shortages in armchairs, notably Bukidnon (25,844) and Misamis Oriental (12,872) in Region 10 and Compostela Valley (8,057) and Davao del Norte (7,936) in Region 1.