Changing Tides
See how Siargao is making waves in the local furniture manufacturing scene
Like the waves of Siargao’s Cloud 9, the tear-shaped island was once still, then formed a promising bump, accelerated to peak, and come 2020, caved into silence again. Blame the travel restrictions that caused tourist arrivals to cease, which made a huge impact on the once-bustling surfing destination. Tourism activities and social gatherings were banned. Construction of resorts and villas was compelled to pause indefinitely. The island was on a months-long lockdown. These circumstances left a lot of locals jobless, a challenge that pushed a young couple living in Siargao (who would rather remain anonymous) to make a move that would, later on, turn into a huge opportunity for the locals and for the island itself.
“We were both busy with other projects when the Covid-19 crisis struck. Those projects had to be put on hold leaving a whole construction team without work,” says one of the masterminds behind Siargao Green Artisans, a team that manufactures handcrafted furniture made of repurposed wood. While those who worked for their previous projects were on a forced break, the couple thought of helping them improve their talents more in furniture-making. After all, it is a craft that is not foreign to them. “All of a sudden, they had the time to hone certain skills and really improve their craft. We gave them designs to experiment with and the results were a pleasant surprise. It happened very organically.” To this couple, making furniture was an idea they had envisioned a bit further down the line, but