Protecting the environment means protecting our lives

By Fr. Shay Cullen, Founder since 1974

The massive landslide at a landfill facility in Binaliw village, Cebu City, on Jan. 8, 2026, left at least 22 people dead and 18 others injured as of Jan. 15. More are still missing. It could have been prevented if there was greater respect for human life, the environment, and the implementation of the rule of law in the Philippines.

There are excellent laws to save and protect nature, and preserve forests and seas. Our once-beautiful environment is being destroyed by corruption, irresponsibility and neglect that are allowing the laws to be flouted and ignored. The enormous level of corruption and maleficence exposed during the investigation into fake flood control projects is one example. The accumulation of trash and human waste being dumped in legal and illegal sites is polluting, even destroying, the environment and our communities. Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, is seldom implemented and obeyed. People suffer and die as a consequence.

A workers’ rights group said the death of so many workers in the Binaliw landfill was a crime against them. Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, chairman of Church People-Workers Solidarity (CWS), said the landslide was not an accident, but was, “in truth, a crime born of greed, neglect, and the systematic violation of workers’ rights.”

The mountain of garbage, said to be about 35 meters or 20 stories high, collapsed on the 50 or so people working there, burying them. Some were pulled out alive; others died horribly underneath. Many were working inside adjacent buildings when the tragedy struck. It demolished the buildings and trapped the workers inside. The waste management company operating the landfill is Prime Integrated Waste Solutions Inc. (PWS). Its website says the site receives about 1,000 tons of solid waste daily from Cebu City and surrounding areas.

The Cebu City Council declared Jan. 16 as a day of mourning for the victims. Following the incident, a cease-and-desist order was issued against the landfill operator, and a state of calamity was declared in Cebu City to manage the waste crisis. The CWS has called for justice for the affected workers, saying they were “compelled to work under dangerous and inhumane conditions — conditions that should never have been allowed and that ultimately cost them their lives.”

Alminaza stood with the CWS, demanding accountability from both the company and government that failed to monitor the site and assess the dangerous condition after heavy rains and an earthquake in September made the garbage dump dangerous and unstable.

“As [a] Church, we affirm that work is sacred because the worker is sacred,” the CWS said, adding that when greed and profit caused safety to be ignored, then “human dignity is gravely violated and work is reduced to exploitation.” The bishop and the group’s leaders demanded that there be an “immediate, thorough, and transparent investigation.”

The late pope Francis frequently denounced the modern “throwaway culture” that treats both objects and people as disposable. He had warned that the earth was beginning to look like “an immense pile of filth” due to the vast amounts of waste generated annually. He also criticized the wasting of food and water, saying throwing out food is like stealing from the poor. Francis advocated for a circular production model that prioritizes reusing and recycling to conserve resources for future generations.

Cebu City councilor Joel Garganera told the media that “a landfill or a mountain that is made of garbage... is like a sponge: it really absorbs water. It doesn’t (take one to be) a rocket scientist to say that, eventually, [such an] incident will happen.”

The Philippines is facing serious challenges in waste management that the government has to address urgently, or else more tragic events will happen on the many dumpsites around the country, endangering thousands of people. Many of these sites are, in fact, illegal and growing faster than the legal ones approved by local government units (LGUs). As of 2025, illegal dumpsites around the country increased by 84 percent year on year. Meanwhile, legal landfill sites grew by 14.7 percent, bringing the total to 343. LGUs cannot cope with the growing volume of garbage being generated, some of which are hazardous.

The region with the most serious concentration of hazardous industrial wastes as of 2024 is in Region 4A, or Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon). It accounted for about 43 percent of the country’s total. Some of the illegal dumpsites on private property are to be found in Arenda, on the north shore of Laguna de Bay, and also in Nosara Spring. In Manila Bay, Baseco Beach is constantly polluted with plastic despite the ongoing heroic efforts of the “Baseco Beach Warriors,” who hold regular cleanup operations and pick up hundreds of bags of trash every week. This condition will only get worse everywhere unless there is a strict implementation of the rule of law and a complete change in the minds and hearts of people to love their environment and clean, recycle, and segregate trash for organized municipal pickup.

A World Bank study predicted that by 2025, the nation’s waste generation would be at 77,776 tons a day, or close to 28.39 million tons a year, considering the country’s population growth, particularly in urban areas. The most recent National Waste Analysis and Characterization Study found that 56.7 percent of municipal solid waste was generated from residential sources. A further 27.1 percent was from commercial establishments. The industrial and manufacturing sectors contribute the remaining 12.1 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

Pope Francis linked environmental abuse to social injustice, urging humanity to hear “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” When alive, he described the pollution of oceans, particularly from plastic waste, as “criminal.” He argued that wealthier nations have an “ecological debt” to poorer ones due to their disproportionate use of resources and export of toxic waste. He also attributed the “great majority” of global warming to human activity driven by a “predatory attitude” and the pursuit of short-term gain.