Groups Mourn Tragic Cebu Garbageslide, Urge Sustained Rescue Efforts and Accountability

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(CiRCA, PEJC, EcoWaste Coalition stand in solidarity with waste workers, seek justice for the victims)

12 January 2026, Cebu City. The EcoWaste Coalition extends its deepest condolences to the families and loved ones affected by the tragic garbageslide on January 8 at the materials recovery facility of Binaliw landfill in Cebu City. The incident, which has now claimed six workers’ lives, left at least 12 injured, and dozens still missing as rescue operations continue, underscores once again the lethal consequences of unsafe waste disposal practices and the persistent neglect of communities living and working near dumpsites.

The collapse of massive piles of garbage struck areas where workers were stationed, gravely endangering landfill personnel—many of whom belong to the informal waste sector, whose labor in recovering recyclable materials is indispensable yet remains largely invisible, undervalued, and unprotected.

“This tragedy did not happen overnight. For a long time, workers had been reporting the dangerous buildup and instability of waste at the landfill. Still, these warnings were not acted upon,” said Anecita “Aning” Abadijas, President of the Cebu Inayawan Resource Collectors Association (CiRCA). “It is deeply painful to see fellow workers losing their lives because known safety risks were left unaddressed. We call on the landfill operator to prioritize the welfare of workers, nearby communities, and the environment over profit, and we urge government agencies to exercise stricter, fair, and consistent monitoring and enforcement so that accountability is ensured and similar tragedies are prevented.”

The Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC), which has been accompanying the affected communities and waste workers in Cebu, also joined the call for accountability. “What happened in Barangay Binaliw is a painful reminder that when environmental laws are ignored or weakly enforced, it is the poor and marginalized who suffer the most,” said Atty. John Menguito, Managing Trustee of PEJC. “There must be a thorough investigation, immediate support for affected families, and decisive action to prevent this from happening again.”

EcoWaste Coalition stressed that honoring the victims requires more than condolences. It begins with prioritizing rescue and retrieval operations, ensuring the safety and welfare of responders and workers, and providing urgent assistance to affected families, while demanding decisive action to prevent similar disasters from happening again.

The group called on local government units and concerned national agencies to take urgent, concrete, and life-saving measures, emphasizing that inaction would only perpetuate a cycle of loss and neglect. Specifically, EcoWaste Coalition urged authorities to:

Ensure immediate and adequate relief, including medical assistance, compensation, livelihood support, and sustained psychosocial services for affected families and workers;

Conduct a transparent, independent, and accountable investigation into the landfill’s operations, structural conditions, and safety protocols, with findings made public;

Shut down unsafe dumps and facilities without delay and fully enforce Republic Act No. 9003 through waste reduction, segregation at source, recycling, and composting—not through practices that endanger lives; and

Meaningfully engage affected communities, particularly informal waste workers, in planning, decision-making, and the development of just transition programs toward safe, dignified, and sustainable livelihoods.

EcoWaste Coalition stressed that the Binaliw landfill incident recalls some of the country’s darkest waste-related tragedies—from the Payatas dumpsite collapse of July 10, 2000, when days of heavy rains triggered a deadly garbage landslide that buried entire communities, to the long-standing crisis at Smokey Mountain in Tondo, where generations of informal waste workers lived and labored amid dangerous piles of waste. These tragedies shocked the nation and helped give rise to Republic Act No. 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, to ensure that no community would ever again be placed in harm’s way due to garbage.

“More than two decades later, we are still seeing the same failures repeated,” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition. “People are still dying because of waste mountains that should have been dismantled long ago.”

At the same time, the group cautioned against using the tragedy to promote false solutions. “The Binaliw landfill tragedy must not be used as an excuse to justify costly, polluting, and unsustainable waste-to-energy incineration technologies.” To avoid a repeat of such a deadly incident in Cebu and elsewhere, the group urged strict enforcement and compliance with RA 9003 and related environmental laws and regulations. “With strong political will and genuine concern for the people and Mother Earth, Cebu, and the entire country can go Zero Waste.”

“As we mourn the lives lost and pray for those still recovering and missing, let this tragedy be a turning point,” the EcoWaste Coalition concluded. “Justice for the victims means ending deadly dumps, protecting workers and communities, and finally implementing ecological waste management in both letter and spirit."

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