DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 27 May 2026) — Informal trash workers looking for a living at the New Carmen sanitary landfill here are worried about their income for the next few days, since what authorities said was a case of “mass wasting” that occurred on May 20 stopped all operations.
According to the opengeology website, “mass wasting is the downhill movement of rock and soil material due to gravity.” (While the term “landslide” is often used instead of mass wasting, the former refers to a kind of mass wasting “that involves fast-moving geologic material.”)
Juniel Dacaldacal, 24, told MindaNews they were nervous about the next few days.
“We’ll only have work until Sunday,” he said, adding the hauling company he works for can no longer collect from the dumpsite.
Dacaldacal earns around ₱500 per day for his daily wage.
As a trash hauler, Dacaldacal is among the informal workers that run the landfill economy indirectly.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources XI, in a document released online on its Facebook page, said operations at the sanitary landfill are suspended.
The mass wasting, which has killed at least two as of noontime Wednesday, has terminated all operations at the site.
Last May 25, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources XI and the Environmental Management Bureau said waste disposal at the sanitary landfill is currently suspended “to implement slope stabilization measures.”
Lawyer Maria Mercedes V. Dumagan, DENR regional executive director, encouraged residents to segregate garbage at home and adopt proper waste management “to reduce the volume of garbage collected by [the] LGU.”
The City Environment and Natural Resources Office has prohibited entry into Purok 8, where the incident happened. They also had a few rules: No dumping, no collecting, not even a visit to the homes of the landslide area.
The landfill has become a source of livelihood for the roughly 3,000 residents living in New Carmen.
The barangay is around 30 minutes uphill from the downtown area.
Scrap picker Jay Petere, 36, said the pickers here have not been allowed to enter the area or operate in Purok 8.
Scrap buyer Antonio Tabar, 32, said haulers and pickers here may look for other jobs such as construction if operations at the landfill do not proceed in the next few days.
In places like New Carmen, one breathes in the distinct scent of trash and leachates without complaint. Flies buzz everywhere, and everywhere there are things to pick up, sort, and weigh for selling.
Here, trash isn’t trash but a potential treasure.
Tabar said 1 kilogram of bronze, for example, costs ₱600 per kilogram. Brass is around ₱320. Alloy, cans, and zinc are around ₱80.
Batteries, TV electronic parts, CDs, plastics, mineral water, metals and cans, around ₱6. Mixed recyclables cost around ₱80.
MindaNews found Dacaldacal and his teammates carrying heavy sacks of scrap materials over their heads from the buying station toward a truck.
On the truck were piles of one-tonner cement bags that carry these discarded recyclables towards Agdao, where the goods will be delivered.
In an interview with MindaNews, Temujin “Tek” Ocampo, who chairs the city council committee on environment, denied that the city had imposed a citywide no collection policy.
Collections continue, he said, citing the City Information Office.
While barangays are indeed empowered to announce a stoppage of collections, there was no official announcement that the entire city would not collect.
In different parts of the city were trash awaiting collection; there were simply no trucks picking them up.
While the city had not strictly imposed a no collection policy, trucks could not proceed to the dumpsite at its normal pace.
MindaNews stumbled upon a long line of trucks lining up to enter the landfill.
Roberto de Ramos, 54, and his truck have been stuck at the road leading to the dumpsite for 24 hours.
De Ramos said that the trucks here, already numbering 54 by noontime, were at the mercy of the landfill operations opening up again.
By 3 p.m., the line reached 76 trucks, with some abandoned temporarily as some drivers looked for food and freshened up elsewhere.
De Ramos said that drivers receive their wages not per day but on a per trip basis.
“We can’t do anything about that,” De Ramos said.
The Purok 8 mass wasting happened around 1 p.m. on May 20.
Gerald Loganio, 42 said he and fellow residents rushed towards the landslide area to help assist in recovery.
He said they found the tip of the fingers of Crisel Estandarte, male, 31, at the surface of the trash heap by nightfall. They tried to perform CPR to no avail.
The body of his mother, 78-year-old Luisa, would be found six days later. New Carmen Barangay Councilor Josefa Ceballos said his body was picked up by Angel Funeral Services.
One senior citizen — Rosita Estandarte, 67 — remains missing as of Wednesday. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)
