[] Meanwhile, the City Government is scrambling to solve pressing problems:
-- finding an alternative landfill even as it scours for remaining workers, alive or dead, in the debris;
-- investigating cause or causes of the deaths and injuries to persons and damage to property, so as to assign responsibility and sanction wrongful acts if any and to adopt changes in the city's waste disposal system.
NOT JUST ONE LGU'S PROBLEM. Closure of the waste disposal facility in Sitio Kainsikan, Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City by DENR, which has declared it a "danger zone," has affected two other cities in Metro Cebu as well.
The January 8, 2025 collapse of the landfill led to the shutdown operations of Cebu City's dumping site, which is also the disposal area of Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City.
Turns out it's not only a major problem of the premier city. Two other local governments in Metro Cebu served by the Binaliw landfill are hurting as well.
But on casualties, it's Cebu City that suffers most. As of Monday, the number of dead rose to 11, even as rescuers continue searching for 25 missing workers, a Xinhua report said Monday.
BIGGER WOE FOR CEBU CITY. Why else is Cebu City most affected by the tragedy? Because the city produces more garbage than the nearby LGUs. Because Cebu City relies solely on Binaliw for garbage disposal.
At least 600 tons of garbage a day, if the system of computing collected trash has already been rectified. That, following the garbage scandal over padded numbers and wrongfully credited collectors, which resulted in the City Government overpaying P230.72 million.
Related: Seares: Cebu City 'overpaid' P239.72 million [News+One, July 31, 2025] Warrants of arrest out soon against 8 Cebu City ex-officials, 3 private individuals [News+One, November 26, 2025]
And the problem is where to dump Cebu City's garbage during the time the City is still searching for a "more or less permanent" site.
Last Sunday, January 11, 2026, officials of Barangay Polog, Consolacion blocked the entry of garbage trucks from Cebu City and the two other Metro cities into the town.
The barangay had passed an "emergency resolution" that opposed the garbage-dumping without "prior coordination."
That coordination apparently must be done between dumper cities and dumpee
Consolacion? What's in it for Consolacion town and barangay as they endure the dumping of trash by the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu?
ALONG WITH MATTER OF DUMPING SITE: CHANGES IN SYSTEM. Criticisms against Binaliw in effect say the old waste disposal system has not worked.
Evidence One: the huge scandal in overpayment.
Evidence Two: the collapse and resulting disuse of the "one and only" facility. No diligent oversight on operations of the Binaliw landfill. No back-up in case of its disabling.
THE BLAME GAME: ACT OF GOD. Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival initially tagged the Binaliw tragedy as an "act of God."
Some context: The mayor said the recent earthquake (6.9 magnitude) and strong typhoons in Cebu may have caused the landfill's collapse. "Structural shifts and stability may have been weakened," he reportedly said.
Archival didn't use the phrase "act of God," a careful reader may note. He didn't explicitly say "the tragedy was caused by an act of God, not by man." Others may have "interpreted" it from the mayor's reference to the quake and weather disturbances.
Atty. Aliko Jasmine L. Garganera -- an ex-City Hall employee, as former executive assistant to her dad Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera -- in a Facebook post of January 10 said Archival's comment (with the "act of God" reference or allusion) prompted her to speak out on the issue.
"Act of God" is another term for the legal jargon "fortuitous event" or "force majeure." Referring to the law's specific language in the Civil Code (Art. 1174), it means "extraordinary, natural" occurrences that are "unforeseen or if foreseen, inevitable."
Like, yes, an earthquake, a typhoon, or floods, although the article also covers acts of men and women, such as war, riots, etc.
'ACT OF GOD' MUST BE UNDILUTED by contributory fault or negligence of persons, if it must exempt human beings from legal liability.
Mayor Archival's comment appears to qualify the "act of God" with probable contribution of man, such as the structure of the garbage piling (24 stories high, says one published estimate).
The collapse could've been caused also by the way the volume of dumped garbage was managed by landfill handlers. God must not have anything to do with that.
ATTY. ALIKO SLAMS SYSTEM, 'OVERSIGHT'. It could have been prevented, said her January 10 post, "by simply listening to what we have been saying for years," namely:
-- "rehabilitate the landfill";
-- "invest in proper infrastructure";
-- "ensure the safety and compliance of these establishments."
Kons Joel's daughter presented her proposal to the City Council while she was still in her councilor father's staff. In March 2017, she wrote in her recent FB post, "we opposed... the Binaliw landfill and begged to a shift to a more sustainable technology." The mayor then (from 2016 to 2019) was
Tomas Osme a, incumbent vice mayor. Did the proposal reach Osme a and did it "fall on deaf ears"?
'OPPOSED, BEGGED.' The problem, Atty. Aliko said, dates back to "as early as 2012 when the Inawawan was partially closed."
"We" (presumably Atty. Aliko and Kons Joel) "opposed" and "begged." She related what she had actively worked for on the landfill controversy, supported by her long years of study here and in Japan on the environmental issue.
It was not known if their activism was shared by the City Council as a collective body and resulted in a resolution addressed to the mayor and other officials and agencies concerned.
My request for context was answered by the councilor with a heart emoji. Nothing more yet.
P550M-600M SPENDING; 'BAND-AID' SOLUTIONS. Did the City Council agree then, or does it agree now, that the solid waste disposal system (SWM) of the City, in Atty. Aliko's assessment, has not only been hugely expensive. The cost, she said, has gone up and grown bigger.
A glimpse into the spending: COA's 2024 annual audit report, released July 22, 2025, flagged the City Government expense of over P407 million on garbage hauling and tipping fees in just six months of 2024, blaming the "ballooning costs" to unenforced management practices and not "maximizing existing infrastructures."
A published news story estimated Cebu City's annual spending on garbage disposal at P550 million to P600 million. Revenue from tax and fees on garbage: only about P100 million yearly.
The solutions were, Atty. Aliko charged, "patched-up and band-aid," resulting in loss of lives and means of livelihood and damage to the environment.
Given that disturbing assessment, the public must want to know what the City Council thinks and how it will solve finally the long-running garbage disposal problem.
'WE-TOLD-YOU-SO' SNIPING may not help much even if City Hall decision makers decide to learn lessons from the Binaliw incident.
How has policy-making/enforcing fumbled on the choice of landfill technology in Binaliw, given the experience from the Inayawan, Pardo landfill controversy?
Recall: The Pardo issue reached the Supreme Court and gave the Garganera father-and-daughter team and the City a clear-cut victory -- and instruction on what to do next time.
Which was (a) to shift to a new system or, in Atty. Aliko's language, "more sustainable technology" or (b) to overhaul thoroughly the landfill type that had failed the City in Pardo.
POLITICS MUST HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT. City Hall watchers assume, more safely than acknowledged, that decisions by elected officials are influenced almost always by political motive.
Part of the setup, woven into policy-making. After all, serving public good purportedly aims to get the vote that enables officials to keep their seats of power.
Atty. Aliko said in her FB post that SWM, or managing solid waste, "is not a priority to our leaders." Why: "Because of politics," she said, obviously assuming that the public understands how politics plays in collecting garbage.
A few details may help a generally clueless public understand what the complainers mean. Without specifics, "politics"-tagging is just a worn-out device, like a fly-swatter, that many public figures use against one another. Often the flies are quicker in getting away.