Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Rule Changes

Facing accountability questions; leading investigation

The Payatas garbage dump in Quezon City collapsed in July 2000, killing at least 218 people. The disaster prompted the Philippines to pass the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which banned open dumpsites and mandated sanitary landfills with engineering safeguards. Twenty-five years later, a landfill in Cebu City collapsed under nearly identical circumstances—oversaturated waste piled too high on too steep a slope—killing 36 sanitation workers.

Updated Jan 19