Search teams on Saturday said they detected possible signs of life under a collapsed landfill in the village of Binaliw, two days after a sudden slide of compacted trash buried low buildings and workers at a privately operated waste facility, killing at least four and injuring a dozen others.
Officials said crews pulled out 12 people with injuries as firefighters, police and disaster responders alternated between heavy excavation and moments of silence to listen for tapping beneath the debris. The landfill employed about 110 workers; authorities said more than 30 remained missing as of the weekend. Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival said teams were bringing in a larger crane and additional earth-moving equipment but warned that unstable slopes, combustible gases and punctured containers complicated the operation. The cause of the collapse was unknown. Families gathered outside the cordon waited for word as the city prepared contingency routes to keep garbage collection running while the rescue continued.
Witnesses described the slide as a roar and a shudder that threw up dust and flattened offices in seconds shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8. Survivors said the weather was calm. In a video shared with local media, responders guided stretchers across uneven ground while a loader cleared a path to a crushed warehouse used for sorting recyclables. “We need to work methodically because the pile moves with every vibration,” a senior fire officer at the scene said. Relatives traded updates by phone as firefighters rotated shifts, pausing machinery when acoustic monitors and hand signals suggested a sound below. One rescued office worker said he felt the floor tilt, then saw corrugated walls buckle: “It was like a wave of trash coming through the building.”
City officials identified the dead as employees of the facility, including a 25-year-old engineer and a female office worker. Names were withheld pending full family notification. The initial tally on Friday listed two dead and 36 missing; by Saturday the death count rose to four as crews reached deeper pockets. Archival said 12 people were hospitalized with fractures and breathing difficulties. The main search zone spans several thousand square meters where a four-story mound collapsed and pushed through a line of structures beside an access road. Rescue leaders said acetylene cylinders and methane trapped in the heap forced intermittent evacuations while gas meters alarmed. Excavator operators worked in short bursts to peel back layers, then idled while teams listened for movement.
Landfill failures have scarred the Philippines in the past. A deadly slide at the Payatas dump in Quezon City in 2000 killed more than 200 people and accelerated reforms in waste management. Cebu, a regional hub for trade and tourism, relies on large transfer and processing sites to handle thousands of tons of garbage each day from the city and neighboring towns. Engineers said post-rescue reviews would examine slope angles, drainage, loading practices and any recent changes in operations. Residents in nearby barangays reported hearing a rumble and smelling gas as the heap collapsed. The facility includes sorting sheds, a weigh station and administrative rooms; several were crushed or buried Thursday.
City leaders said the immediate focus is rescue and accounting. After emergency operations, regulators are expected to audit the site’s permits, engineering records and compliance logs. Investigators plan to review staffing levels on the afternoon of the collapse and to match time sheets against names reported missing. Officials also intend to secure security-camera footage, radio traffic recordings and delivery manifests to build a minute-by-minute timeline between the final routine check and the first distress calls. Archival said he has asked for a preliminary safety briefing early in the week, with a fuller technical report to follow after geotechnical assessments.
Crews worked into Saturday night under portable floodlights. A 50-ton crane was positioned to lift heavier panels where rescuers believed voids might exist. Teams mapped the site into grids to manage the dig. Medics staged at two triage tents, and ambulances shuttled patients to Cebu City Medical Center and nearby private hospitals. Volunteers handed out water and N95 masks to relatives and workers covered in dust. “We heard a faint thud, then what sounded like tapping,” a rescue worker said, explaining why excavators idled for several minutes before a hand team advanced with stretchers. At the perimeter, a safety officer held a fist in the air to signal silence as spotters leaned close to a collapsed roof.
The city’s environment department said routine collection would be rerouted temporarily to avoid backlogs that could affect neighborhoods. Officials stressed that the rescue has priority over operations at the Binaliw site, which will stay closed until cleared by engineers. Elsewhere in the region, local governments offered trucks and manpower to help move waste while Cebu City copes with the shutdown. The facility’s operator did not issue a detailed statement; representatives said they were cooperating with authorities and directing questions to insurers and legal counsel. No penalties or charges had been announced.
Neighbors said the facility kept normal hours on Thursday and that some workers were inside the warehouse taking inventory when the slide hit. One man who lives along the access road said he felt the ground tremble before dust rolled over the roofs. Another witness said she heard shouts to “clear the area” as the first responders arrived. Families who gathered at a nearby staging point passed around bottled water and phone chargers. A counselor with a local church group said volunteers were offering quiet spaces to wait. A mother searching for her son showed a selfie he sent at lunchtime from the sorting bay; the message ended with a plan to meet after shift change.
By late Saturday, officials had not given a new count of the missing beyond “more than 30,” pending reconciliation of logs from supervisors and contractors. The death toll stood at four. Engineers continued checking for secondary failures along the remaining slopes and built dirt ramps to steady heavy equipment. Responders said they would keep rotating crews overnight and expected a public update Sunday evening with any confirmed rescues or identifications.
Author note: Last updated January 11, 2026.