By Tracy Cabrera
SENATE, Pasay City — During the hearing on solid waste management by the Senate committee on environment, natural resources and climate change, the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) informed senators that five sanitary landfills—one in Metro Manila and the rest in the provinces—pose environmental and human hazards as they are at great risk of catching fire.
If one recalls the recent Navotas Sanitary Landfill blaze, which caught fire due to methane buildup, air pollution rose to dangerous levels as it spread to nearby areas in Metro Manila. It took a month for the fire to be finally put out on May 10, after weeks of continuous response operations involving national agencies, local authorities, stakeholders, and private-sector partners.
EMB director Michael Matias identified the following landfills as being at risk for “danger of fire”—Once again the Navotas Sanitary Landfill and the Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfill in Rodriguez, Binaliw Sanitary Landfill in Cebu City, Davao City Sanitary Landfill and Urdaneta Sanitary Landfill in Pangasinan.
Reacting to the revelation, Senator Ana Theresia ‘Risa’ Hontiveros-Baraquel cited that there is apparently a growing need for preemptive measures against potential hazards from landfills that are already in “critical condition.”
Aside from the Navotas incident, Hontiveros also mentioned how a person was killed last February after a garbage mound in the Rodriguez, Rizal landfill collapsed. This was preceded, the lady senator added, by another ‘trash-slide’ in the Binaliw landfill in Cebu in January, which killed 36 and injured 18.
Going back to the discussions, it was noted that regarding the Urdaneta City Landfill, a plan for its P459-million upgrade and rehabilitation was already proposed in 2024, but four years after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) ordered a cease and desist order against the facility for violating the Philippine Clean Water Act.
Hontiveros noted that it was ironic that the “critical” landfills were located in highly urbanized areas that had more resources.
In ending, the lady lawmaker pointed out that the tragedies involving landfills were not mere accidents or isolated incidents but rather “symptoms of a much deeper problem—a failure of governance and failure of implementation in our waste management.”
“Our laws are clear. Landfills are meant to be the last resort and not the default solution. But gaps in the implementation of waste reduction, segregation, and recycling at the local level continue to push large volumes of waste into landfills,” Hontiveros concluded.
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