FIVE sanitary landfills in the country have been identified as being in critical condition by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), officials disclosed during a Senate hearing Monday, as lawmakers examined proposed measures to overhaul the country’s solid waste management system in the wake of recent landfill collapses.
During the joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, lawyer Michael Drake Matias, current director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), said the five landfills are in Navotas City; Montalban, Rizal; Cebu City; Davao City and Urdaneta, Pangasinan.
Environment Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna told the panel that the sites were flagged following a nationwide assessment ordered through a January memorandum directing all EMB regional offices to inspect operational sanitary landfills.
‘Offhand, there were five that were identified being under imminent danger,’ Cuna said, noting that some sites were also found to face possible fire hazards. He said the DENR would submit a complete report to the committee.
The disclosure came as senators questioned whether previous warnings issued by government agencies had been acted upon before the deadly landfill failures.
Sen. Anna Theresia ‘Risa’ Hontiveros pointed to a 2023 Commission on Audit (COA) performance audit that had warned the Cebu sanitary landfill was at risk of reaching capacity because of increasing waste disposal and the lack of adequate waste diversion facilities.
She questioned why authorities failed to prevent the disaster despite earlier warnings.
‘What is the use of inspections, compliance reports, and assessments if landfill operations continue despite warnings until they completely collapse?’ Hontiveros said during the hearing.
She also asked the DENR to submit records showing how many landfill operators nationwide had previously received warnings from either the DENR, COA, or other government agencies and whether corrective actions had been undertaken.
Cuna acknowledged that the information remained with regional offices and committed to consolidate and submit the data to the Senate.
EMB Region 7 Director John Edward Ang said the agency’s initial investigation found that the collapse in the Cebu landfill was primarily triggered by frequent earthquake activity and heavy rainfall brought by Typhoon Tino, which caused water to accumulate inside the landfill.
‘The build-up of water inside our sanitary landfill contributed to the trash slide incident,’ Ang said, adding that the release of large amounts of leachate after the collapse supported the agency’s findings.
Pressed by Hontiveros on whether internal operational issues also contributed to the disaster, Ang said investigators were still assessing other possible factors, including waste composition, although continuous rainfall remained the principal focus of the ongoing evaluation.
The senator noted that earthquakes and typhoons were recurring events in Cebu and argued that investigators should also determine whether internal deficiencies, such as poor waste segregation or overcapacity, made the landfill more vulnerable.
Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival, who attended the hearing, said the Binaliw tragedy underscored the need to reduce dependence on landfills by investing in composting, recycling, and other waste processing facilities.
He said Cebu City generates about 600 to 700 tons of waste daily, around 60 percent of which is biodegradable, while only 10 percent to 15 percent consists of residual waste that ultimately requires landfill disposal.
Archival said strict enforcement of waste segregation alone would not solve the country’s garbage problem without sufficient infrastructure to process segregated waste.
‘If there is no adequate composting, recycling, and upcycling facilities, the segregated waste will still end up in the landfill,’ he said.
He added that the collapse of the Binaliw landfill has forced Cebu City to haul its garbage to another disposal site roughly 80 kilometers away, significantly increasing hauling costs.
Archival urged lawmakers to allocate funding for composting facilities, saying these could reduce landfill dependence, lower greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing waste, and produce compost that could benefit farmers.