LAST Sept. 30, Cebu was rocked by a magnitude-6.9 earthquake, with its center in Bogo and San Remigio towns in the north. The force of the earthquake reached Cebu City down in the south as well. Buildings rocked, and unbeknownst to others, the mountain slopes and the soil must have been loosened.
Last Nov. 4, another tragedy struck Cebu, when Typhoon Tino cut a wide swath of destruction. Residents of its major cities found themselves flooded to the roofs, and the death toll reached 150 (with 57 missing and presumed dead).
But bad luck, as well as tragedies, seems to come in threes. The third tragedy struck last Thursday afternoon, when the landfill facility in Cebu City collapsed in Barangay Binaliw. Think of a skyscraper of garbage tumbling down on a building inhabited by people on an office day, as well as burying several people who may have been scavenging for whatever they could salvage and sell from the trash. The tragedy struck hours after thousands had joined the Penitential Walk for Jesus, marking the official start of the annual fiesta for the Señor.
As of yesterday, 35 people, mostly workers in the facility, remained missing, with four others confirmed dead and several others badly injured. The site housed the materials recovery facility and offices of the landfill operator, Prime Integrated Waste Solutions. Why on earth was the office built near the mountain of garbage is anyone’s guess.
Officials said the ground that served as the foundation of the landfill must have been loosened and rendered unstable by the flooding from Tino and the magnitude-6.9 earthquake. The cause of the collapse has yet to be established, but the deadly accident has reminded the country of Tino, and the results of investigations to determine what caused the deadly flooding, aside from the excessive rainfall.
This incident should make us confront at least two issues: the safety of the Binaliw landfill and how to deal with the garbage problem in Cebu.
Cebu City is small and needed a landfill on an entire mountainside. Since 2019, it has filled an otherwise beautiful place with trash that could easily slough off. Moreover, after this tragedy, the city authorities will again have to look for another landfill, since the one in Binaliw will eventually be filled to capacity.
Garbage trucks from the LGUs that utilize the Binaliw landfill — which was acquired by Prime Waste Solutions three years ago — have been unable to unload as retrieval operations continue. The Cebu City government was forced to temporarily suspend the already inadequate garbage collection while scouting for an alternative disposal site.
The Manila Times columnist Marit Stinus Cabugon noted in her column that “this isn’t the first time that the city finds itself in such a predicament. Yet, despite experiencing the sudden closure of landfills in the past, with resulting uncollected garbage piling up everywhere, the city’s solid waste management system remains inefficient. The city lacks operational material recovery facilities and has ignored instituting meaningful waste minimization policies.”
For a long time, ever since the days of former mayor (and now vice mayor) Tomas Osmeña, Cebu City has been preparing to implement waste segregation at source — through a “no segregation, no collection” scheme. But do the officials and personnel in charge of the implementation have the competence and experience to do this?
Emma Ramas, the chairperson of Cebu City’s Solid Waste Management Board, said that households “should take care of their own biodegradable waste — use it to grow food, turn it into compost, or even earn from it.” But many of Cebu City’s 1 million residents are not homebound. They are busy earning a living in full-time jobs.
Cabugon wrote: “They live in apartments, boarding houses and other tiny spaces in highly congested neighborhoods. One thing is to separate biodegradable waste; another is to manage it... The disaster happened as communities and civil society organizations in over 90 countries, including the Philippines, observed International Zero Waste Month. The idea of zero waste still hasn’t gained traction in Cebu.“
One solution, then, is to finally implement Republic Act 9003, or the law on waste management. The city needs improved recycling rates and to do so with the necessary systems and political will. It has to conduct a campaign and train garbage collectors to collect only segregated trash. If it fails, finding another mountainside and despoiling it won’t solve the garbage problem of the Queen City of the South.
