[] Violations of the law were flagged “years before the collapse” that killed at least 36 people and injured 18 others.
[] NBI will look into possible criminal liability of regulators and enforcers, even though no complaint or request has been filed
[] Lawmakers may review, under the authority of “in aid of legislation,” the rules about policies related to garbage disposal. It also has the job of oversight on spending of city funds.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED. National Bureau of Investigation-Central Visayas (NBI-7) Director Jose Ermie Monsanto announced Tuesday, January 27, 2026, that his regional office will investigate the Binaliw landfill collapse that killed 36 people. On NBI’s own initiative, even without formal complaint or request.
That, after the City Council declined to form a City Council-led fact-finding body, according to Councilor Pastor Alcover Jr. And after Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña, in a number of presscons, rejected the call for a lawmakers’ inquiry into the disaster.
NBI ENTRY WOULD BE LIKE A PAST JOB, similar to its investigation on the P239.72 million alleged overpayment by the Cebu City Government for the garbage collection covering January to August in 2021.
Seares: What to blame for Cebu City landfill tragedy (Jan. 13, 2026)
The difference in the two NBI responses: NBI was requested by then city mayor Michael Rama, who roused the City Council to action in its oversight role as guardian of funds that it appropriates. There’s no such request this time.
The activism led to the filing of criminal complaints in 2025 before the Sandiganbayan against eight City Hall officials and employees the Ombudsman had dismissed and three private contractors. They were about to be arrested but the Supreme Court in a temporary restraining order (TRO) ordered the anti-graft court proceeding suspended.
TOMAS’ REASONS: DO THEY FLY? Vice Mayor Osmeña’s reasons for refusing a City Council inquiry:
-- “It would not solve the city’s waste management problems.”
-- The disaster “was caused by technical problems that fall under DENR’s jurisdiction.”
-- A public hearing “won’t address the root of the problem.” “Public officials like him couldn’t explain the problem, let alone ordinary citizens.” Complex technical matters cannot be solved through public hearings, Osmeña said.
Neither VM Osmeña nor Mayor Nestor Archival was reported to have complained to, or asked the help of, the NBI.
TRUE, CITY COUNCIL PROBES MAY NOT FIX THINGS. Not directly, as the City Council has to rely on experts of the field to examine a technical problem up close. And the lawmakers cannot enforce the solution. Councilors are lawmakers, for heaven’s sake; they’re not the mayor and the technical people he can tap; they’re not the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) or some other national agency.
But the City Council function is to examine policy and oversee conduct of government, and the spending of funds the City Council appropriates. The councilors can -- they’re duty-bound to -- examine flaws of management and suspicion of corruption.
The process of legislative investigation itself has a lot of defects, among them the kind of resource persons the City Council summons and the investigative skill of the councilors seeking out the information.
In some legislative bodies, they hire a research panel that pools information before and after hearings, along with experts who assist councilors in extracting data from resource persons.
But that’s another inadequacy the City Council may decide to correct, which it may review and revise any time soon.
TO CLARIFY, FIND OUT WHY. Public interest will be benefited if the City Council can determine why measures to prevent the Binaliw disaster were not adopted despite early signals that something was wrong with the landfill operation.
Such as when in 2019, according to the BusinessWorld story, EMB or Environmental Board in Region 7 issued violation notices to the landfill’s operator for “improper handling and missing monitoring reports.” Apparently no response and action, not even in 2023 when Prime Waste Solutions assumed control and “pledged” upgrade and other changes.
No action, such as when residents of nearby Consolacion brought up concerns about water quality, suspecting “underground contamination from leachate.”
Or when Cebu City’s Solid Waste Management Board -- yes, the City Government’s own -- disclosed that the landfill violated the waste law by allowing untreated disposal.
OVERLAPPING WON’T HURT. There are other probes scheduled or going on. Like the DENR investigation on the Binaliw disaster and its restudy of the rules governing nationwide operations of landfills. Like the NBI investigation.
Some fact-finding tasks may overlap and yet the concern of each will be different. DENR will look more closely at its regulation and enforcement rule while the NBI will dwell on criminal liability, if any, of the operators, regulators, or enforcers.
The City Council must worry over public safety, not just of the workers if the landfill will reopen but also of residents who complained about their water supply and the stench and disease-inducing by-products of the disposal service.
Besides, the oversight comes with the function of appropriating money. The councilors must know how public funds they release are being spent.
LESSON FROM PAYATAS, BINALIW. Present-day regulators and enforcers -- including the chief executive and his staff on solid waste disposal, along with the councilors -- might not have learned a lesson from the collapse of the landfill in Payatas, Quezon City on July 10, 2000. They didn’t know or weren’t around yet.
Estimates of the Payatas casualties -- buried in garbage or burned in fires -- ranged from 200 to 1,000. The Binaliw toll though, with fewer dead, is no less devastating, as the disaster struck right here in our midst.
Maybe the “act of God” instructs this time.