CEBU CITY — The death toll from the landfill collapse in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City, increased to four, as search and rescue teams continued operating under dangerous conditions on Saturday to locate 35 workers who remain missing beneath tons of garbage and debris.
The four dead, including an engineer and a female office worker, were all employees of the landfill and waste management facility with a staff of 110, according to the mayor and police.
The initial list of victims on Friday included two dead and 36 missing, which increased on Saturday to four dead, according to Mayor Nestor Archival, who did not provide an updated number of people missing.
Authorities also reported that 12 workers were rescued alive and brought to nearby hospitals for treatment after being pulled from the rubble.
The collapse occurred at 4:17 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8, when a massive slide of accumulated waste swept through the private landfill facility operated by Prime Waste Solutions.
The garbage mound buried portions of the landfill management building, staff housing areas and company offices.
Some employees were reportedly inside the management building when the structure gave way.
Emergency responders continued working around the clock despite serious safety risks at the site.
Officials said methane gas trapped beneath the garbage pile has slowed rescue operations, as it restricts the use of cutting and grinding equipment due to the risk of fire and suffocation.
The continued movement of the waste mound has also made the area unstable, raising concerns that excessive use of heavy machinery could trigger another collapse.
To manage these risks, authorities deployed around 500 rescuers from various agencies, organizing them into four teams — Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta — each assigned to a specific section of the landfill.
Another 500 personnel were placed on standby to support sustained operations as conditions allow.
About 40 heavy equipment units are currently on site, but their use remains tightly controlled to protect both rescuers and possible survivors still buried beneath the debris.
Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival, who is serving as incident commander, said authorities are operating within a three-day rescue window from Jan. 9 to 11 before shifting from rescue to retrieval operations.
“We are hoping we can retrieve the 34 who are still inside before that date,” Archival said.
The Bureau of Fire Protection reported that the second body was recovered at 4:45 p.m. on Friday and was identified as a 25-year-old subcontract engineer of Prime Waste Solutions.
The third body, that of a woman, was retrieved at 6:35 p.m. and was turned over to the Philippine National Police Forensics for processing and identification.
Officials said the landfill employs 139 workers, most of whom are residents of nearby barangay.
Families of the missing workers have gathered outside the restricted area, anxiously awaiting updates as rescue operations continue.
Authorities urged relatives and the public to avoid the site to allow rescuers to work without obstruction, saying verified information will be released through official channels as the situation develops.
Rescuers were now facing the danger of further collapse as they navigated the wreckage, Cebu rescuer Jo Reyes said.
“Operations are ongoing as of the moment. It is continuous. [But] from time to time, the landfill is moving, and that will temporarily stop the operation,” she said.
“We have to stop for a while for the safety of our rescuers.”
Information from the disaster site has been emerging slowly, with city employees citing the lack of signal from the dumpsite, which serviced Cebu and other surrounding communities.
Joel Garganera, a Cebu City council member, said as of 10 a.m. (0200 GMT), the death toll from the disaster had climbed to four, with 34 still missing.
“The four casualties were inside the facility when it happened... They have these staff houses inside where most people who were buried stayed,” he said.
“It’s very difficult on the part of the rescuers, because there are really heavy [pieces of steel], and every now and then, the garbage is moving because of the weight from above,” Garganera said.
“We are hoping against hope here and praying for miracles,” he said when asked about the timeline for rescue efforts.
“We cannot just jump to the retrieval [of bodies], because there are a lot of family members who are within the property waiting for any positive result.”
Alarming height
“Every now and then when it rains, there are landslides happening around the city of Cebu... how much more [dangerous is that] for a landfill or a mountain that is made of garbage?” Garganera said.
“The garbage is like a sponge, they really absorb water. It doesn’t [take] a rocket scientist to say that eventually, the incident will happen.”
Garganera described the height from which the trash fell as “alarming,” estimating the top of the pile had stood 20 storys above the area struck.
Drivers had long complained about the dangers of navigating the steep road to the top, he added.
Photos released by police on Friday showed a massive mound of trash atop a hill directly behind buildings that a city information officer said also contained administrative offices.
Garganera noted that the disaster was a “sad, double whammy” for the city, as the facility was the “lone service provider” for Cebu and adjacent communities.
The landfill “processes 1,000 tons of municipal solid waste daily,” according to the website of its operator, Prime Integrated Waste Solutions.
Calls and emails to the company have so far gone unreturned.
Survivors
Rita Cogay, who operates a compactor at the site, said on Friday she had stepped outside to get a drink of water just moments before the building she had been in was crushed.
“I thought a helicopter had crashed. But when I turned, it was the garbage and the building coming down,” the 49-year-old said.
Jaylord Antigua, a 31-year-old office worker at the landfill, said the wall of garbage cascaded down and destroyed the administrative office he was in. He extricated himself with bruises on his face and arms by crawling in darkness in the rubble and debris.
“I saw a light and crawled toward it in a hurry, because I feared there will be more landslides,” Antigua said. “It was traumatic. I feared that it was my end, so this is my second life.”
Impact on Cebu
It is unclear how the accident would affect garbage disposal in the landfill in Cebu, a bustling port city of nearly a million people that serves as a regional hub for trade, commerce and tourism.
Preparations “are also under way to manage the looming garbage collection issue,” Archival said in his statement without further details.
Such landfills and open dumpsites have long been a source of safety and health concerns throughout the Philippines, especially in areas close to poor communities where many residents scavenge for junk and leftover food in the garbage heaps.
In July 2000, a huge garbage mound in a shantytown in suburban Quezon City, part of metropolitan Manila, collapsed and ignited a fire after days of stormy weather.
The disaster left more than 200 people dead and many more missing, damaged scores of shanties and prompted a law requiring the closure of illegal dump sites nationwide, as well as improved and more sustainable waste management by authorities. WITH AFP AND AP