Rescue teams in the Philippines continued intensive search efforts on Friday after a massive garbage pile collapsed at a landfill in Cebu City, leaving at least one person dead and dozens feared trapped beneath the debris.
The incident occurred on Thursday at the Binaliw Landfill, a privately operated waste facility, where a towering mound of refuse gave way and buried nearly 50 sanitation workers who were on site at the time.
Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival said rescuers detected possible signs of survivors as search operations intensified.
“There are signs of life,” Archival told a news briefing, adding that the hundreds of rescuers already deployed would be reinforced by “another 500” personnel. He noted that the search was expected to continue through Sunday.
According to the mayor, rescue efforts have been complicated by safety concerns, as heavy equipment use is restricted due to the risk of igniting methane gas released from the landfill.
Archival confirmed that 34 people are still missing, revising an earlier figure of 38 shared on his Facebook page. At least 12 workers have been rescued alive and taken to hospital for treatment.
A city assistant public information officer, Jason Morata, described the collapsed trash mound as enormous.
The garbage pile “must be four storeys high,” Morata told AFP.
Police-released aerial images showed multiple structures crushed under the weight of the waste. Morata explained that the buildings served as operational facilities for the private company managing the landfill.
He said the structures housed “company offices, HR, admin, maintenance staff.”
Authorities are examining several possible factors behind the collapse. Morata noted that Cebu experienced two typhoons and an earthquake in late 2025, which may have weakened the landfill’s stability.
He added that updates from the site have been slow because there is “no signal” at the dump location.
The landfill operator, Prime Integrated Waste Solutions, states on its website that the facility processes 1,000 tons of municipal solid waste daily. Attempts to contact the company for comment on Friday were unsuccessful.
Local officials said the cause of the collapse remains unclear.
“We don’t know what caused the collapse. It wasn’t raining at all,” said Marge Parcotello, a civilian staff member of the police department in Consolacion, a neighboring town where many of the victims reportedly reside.
“Many of the victims are from Consolacion,” she added.
The tragedy has revived memories of a devastating July 2000 landfill disaster in Manila, where more than 200 people were killed after a massive garbage avalanche engulfed a densely populated shanty town. That incident led to widespread public outrage and the passage of legislation aimed at strengthening waste management regulations in the Philippines.
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