THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources–Davao Region (DENR-Davao) has donated about 9,000 board feet of lumber to the Department of Education (DepEd), turning seized forest products into much-needed school armchairs.
The lumber was processed by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) through its Provincial Training Center in Davao Oriental as part of the Carpentry NC II program. From the donated wood, trainees produced 171 new armchairs that were turned over to Sanghay Elementary School under TESDA’s “Bangko sa Kabataan” project.
DENR-Davao said the initiative gave confiscated lumber a second life while helping ease shortages in public schools.
The department also reported that 4,168 cubic meters of forest products stockpiled at Hallmark Mining Corp. are being prepared for turnover to DENR for proper disposition.
Second District Rep. Cheeno Miguel D. Almario initiated the request for available lumber from DENR and allocated funds to Tesda to convert the wood into armchairs, officials said. The move aimed to address the continuing lack of classroom furniture in schools.
Tesda-Davao Region said 75 students from Barangay Sanghay completed the Tvet Carpentry NC II program under the “Bangko sa Kabataan: Maayong Edukasyon Para sa Maayong Kaugmaon” project. The trainees fabricated the armchairs using confiscated wood.
“The ceremony celebrated the completion of community-based training, highlighting the trainees’ successful fabrication of 172 armchairs, which were formally turned over and donated to the Department of Education as a meaningful contribution to the community,” Tesda Davao said in a post.
Tesda has scaled up the production of armchairs from confiscated logs as part of the government’s push to augment classroom furniture nationwide. In a report released in November 2025, Tesda said it produced 58,881 armchairs and delivered 57,621 to DepEd schools under the furniture production project.
The shortage remains significant. The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) reported that DepEd faces a lack of about 165,000 classroom chairs, forcing around 5 million students to attend classes in aisles due to the shortage. RGP