We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones affected by the tragic landfill landslide that occurred on Jan. 8, 2026 at the materials recovery facility of Binaliw landfill in Cebu City. The incident 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.
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.
We call 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 urges 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 (RA) 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.
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 RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which was meant to ensure that no community would ever again be placed in harm’s way because of garbage.
More than two decades later, we are still seeing the same failures repeated. People are still dying because of waste mountains that should have been dismantled long ago.
We also caution 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. Justice for the victims means ending deadly dumps, protecting workers and communities and finally implementing ecological waste management in both letter and spirit.