THE MASSIVE landslide at a landfill facility in Binaliw village, Cebu City, on Jan. 8, 2026, left at least 22 people dead and 18 others injured as of Jan. 15. More are still missing. It could have been prevented if there was greater respect for human life, the environment, and the implementation of the rule of law in the Philippines.
There are excellent laws to save and protect nature, and preserve forests and seas. Our once-beautiful environment is being destroyed by corruption, irresponsibility and neglect that are allowing the laws to be flouted and ignored.
The enormous level of corruption and maleficence exposed during the investigation into fake flood control projects is one example.
The accumulation of trash and human waste being dumped in legal and illegal sites is polluting, even destroying, the environment and our communities. Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, is seldom implemented and obeyed. People suffer and die as a consequence.
A workers’ rights group said the death of so many workers in the Binaliw landfill was a crime against them. Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, chairman of Church People-Workers Solidarity (CWS), said the landslide was not an accident, but was, “in truth, a crime born of greed, neglect, and the systematic violation of workers’ rights.”
The mountain of garbage, said to be about 35 meters or 20 stories high, collapsed on the 50 or so people working there, burying them. Some were pulled out alive; others died horribly underneath.
Many were working inside adjacent buildings when the tragedy struck. It demolished the buildings and trapped the workers inside.
The waste management company operating the landfill is Prime Integrated Waste Solutions Inc. (PWS). Its website says the site receives about 1,000 tons of solid waste daily from Cebu City and surrounding areas.
The Cebu City Council declared Jan. 16 as a day of mourning for the victims. Following the incident, a cease-and-desist order was issued against the landfill operator, and a state of calamity was declared in Cebu City to manage the waste crisis.
The CWS has called for justice for the affected workers, saying they were “compelled to work under dangerous and inhumane conditions — conditions that should never have been allowed and that ultimately cost them their lives.”
Alminaza stood with the CWS, demanding accountability from both the company and government that failed to monitor the site and assess the dangerous condition after heavy rains and an earthquake in September made the garbage dump dangerous and unstable.
“As [a] Church, we affirm that work is sacred because the worker is sacred,” the CWS said, adding that when greed and profit caused safety to be ignored, then “human dignity is gravely violated and work is reduced to exploitation.” The bishop and the group’s leaders demanded that there be an “immediate, thorough, and transparent investigation.” (To be continued)/PN
