- One dead in landfill avalanche, search continues for 2 missing
RESCUERS continue to dig through the mountain of trash following the mass wasting incident at the sanitary landfill in Tugbok District on Wednesday afternoon, killing a 31-year-old scavenger, injuring two minors, and leaving two elderly women missing.
The landslide occurred at approximately 1:15 p.m. on May 20, at the New Carmen Sanitary Landfill, burying one shanty and triggering the evacuation of hordes of families, according to an initial assessment released by the Davao City Police Office.
Disaster response officials attributed the sudden structural failure to critical water buildup underneath the immense garbage heap, a consequence of the heavy rains that battered Davao Region over the last 48 hours.
The casualties
Emergency response units arriving at the scene confirmed the following casualties, all residents of Purok 8, Barangay New Carmen:
- Deceased: Cristel (surname withheld by authorities), a 31-year-old male scavenger, whose body was recovered by retrieval teams during the initial hours of the operation.
- Missing: Luisa , 78, a scavenger, and Rosita , 67. Both women remain unaccounted for and are feared trapped underneath the debris field.
- Injured: A 16-year-old male and a woman identified as Lilibeth, of legal age. Both sustained various injuries when the collapsing waste crushed a residential structure and were rushed to a nearby medical facility for emergency treatment.
Search and retrieval mobilization
Following an emergency call received at 1:50 p.m., first responders from the Ma-a Police Station, led by station commander Maj. Philip Dave A. Uddin rushed to the site to establish a command post.
Search and retrieval operations are currently being co-managed by the Davao City Police Office RPSB Clusters 11 and 12, the 1st and 2nd City Mobile Force Companies, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Urban Search and Rescue teams, and heavy engineering units from the City Government of Davao.
As of Wednesday evening, search operations remain ongoing under dangerous conditions.
Rescue teams have to navigate unstable terrain heavily saturated with water, compounded by toxic gases and hazardous waste common to landfill environments.
The DCPO stated that a progress report will follow as heavy equipment moves into the epicenter of the slide to locate the two missing elderly women.
Local officials cordoned off the immediate perimeter of the New Carmen landfill, warning remaining informal settlers and waste-pickers to evacuate high-risk impact zones as weather conditions remain erratic.
