DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 07 June 2026) – A garbage crisis triggered by a trash-slide on May 20 in the city’s sanitary landfill, remains unresolved 18 days later (June 7), as the Davao City government and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) XI have been embroiled in a policy war.
The trash-slide left two persons dead, two injured, one still missing, and in the past 18 days, some 12,000 tons of garbage with nowhere to go. The city has a minimum collection of 700 tons of trash per day.
It took Mayor Sebastian Duterte 15 days to issue a statement.
He announced the adjacent sanitary landfill would start operations by June 16 but the DENR on June 5 said the suspension order on the Davao City Sanitary Landfill (SLF) will only be lifted “once all required safety and engineering interventions are completed – measures intended to secure ongoing retrieval operations, support evacuations, and protect workers and nearby communities.”
In its May 26 Motion for Reconsideration, the city government proposed a temporary disposal area inside the SLF, “subject to DENR-identified engineering interventions.”
The city government committed to complete these by June 9, “pending DENR verification, stabilization, drainage controls, and other engineering interventions.”
Since the trash slide, major city streets have been filled with uncollected litter, with the local government ambiguous about collections.
Some Barangays initiated cessation of collections, while city council members insisted there was no citywide stoppage in collection but that the landfill simply could not accommodate new trash.
Claiming the city had already submitted necessary documents and complied with requirements, Duterte blamed the DENR for the delay.
Duterte taunted the DENR-XI by identifying its frontage as a garbage collection point so the agency “can personally appreciate the volume of garbage.” Mounds of garbage were, indeed dumped, on the road fronting the regional environment office even as Section 44, Paragraph 1 of the city’s Ecological Solid Waste Management Ordinance passed in 2010 prohibits the throwing, scattering, or dumping of waste in public places such as roads, sidewalks, and public buildings.
The ordinance also requires citizens to segregate trash and dispose of these properly, with penalties ranging from P1,000 to P5,000 and/or community service for one to 15 days.
Repeat offenders may get prison time, according to the ordinance.
The city faces these garbage woes on the same month it holds a tourism promotions event, Duaw Dabaw.
June is also Environment Month.
Meanwhile, the DENR XI sidewalk has since been cleared of trash by Sunday, with a tarpaulin telling the public that disposal was illegal.
Here’s a timeline of the garbage issue from May 20.
20 May 2026
Trash-slide at the Davao City Sanitary Landfill (SLF) in Barangay New Carmen at at around 1:10 p.m., affecting an estimated 3.72 hectares of the landfill area. The collapse blocked access roads, damaged nearby houses, and killed two persons. Two others were injured and one has remained missing as of June 6.
21 May
DENR issues stoppage order. The DENR said later in a statement that the suspension order was issued “to facilitate search and retrieval operations, conduct geotechnical assessments, and protect nearby communities from further risks.”
26 May
City Information Officer Harvey Lanticse breaks the silence of the city government through a press statement that the local government has “temporarily suspended the utilization of the Barangay New Carmen Sanitary Landfill effective May 22, 2026, in compliance with the suspension order issued by DENR Region XI.”
Lanticse adds that the City filed a Motion for Reconsideration with the DENR XI on May 26, citing the results of “geotechnical assessments conducted at the site and the recommended corrective measures at the existing landfill facility.”
“Moving forward, the City will utilize its new landfill facility adjacent to the existing site in Barangay New Carmen,” that the CENRO will continue to collect garbage as scheduled. The statement also reminds the public to “properly segregate their waste at home to help reduce landfill waste and facilitate recycling and recovery efforts.”
03 June
The environmental group Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS) emphasizes in its statement, “Davao City’s Persistent Waste Management Crisis,” that the city faces a “critical waste management crisis” that demands immediate attention and responsibility especially during this Environment Month.
“The same cycle has persisted: waste accumulation, flooding, public health risks, repeated recommendations, and limited structural change.”
The statement calls on citizens to strengthen community-based waste management, including waste segregation at its source, but should be matched by efficient collection and accountable city systems.
It also urges the City Government and relevant agencies to “immediately resolve collection backlogs, enhance waste management systems, and make community-based approaches central to the city’s strategy.”
04 June
Fifteen days after the trash-slide and a still uncollected two-week garbage, Mayor Sebastian Duterte issues a statement at nearly midnight (11:07 p.m.) to say the delay in garbage collection is causing public health and sanitation problem, “not because of the waste itself, but because of the bureaucratic inaptitude (sic) of DENR.”
Duterte says the people living around the landfill have been evacuated and “what remains are corrective measures that can be undertaken while allowing landfill operations to continue based on sound and practical judgement.”
Duterte names as additional collection point the area “in front of the DENR XI office, so they can personally appreciate the volume of garbage that accumulates when an essential public service is halted indefinitely.”
05 June
Mayor Duterte posts a statement at 1:07 p.m. claiming that the development of a new sanitary landfill adjacent to the existing facility has been underway since 2024 and that the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for the project has already been secured, “and only the finalization of the loading bay remain (sic) pending, with completion expected by June 16, 2026.”
“Our observations and practical assessment indicate that conditions at the existing landfill have reached a point where operations may safely resume while the remaining corrective measures are being implemented,” the mayor says, adding the city government will not make the area in front of the DENR XI office a garbage collection point if the city government is allowed to operate the new facility by June 16, 2026.
05 June
The DENR regional office posts a statement on its FB page at 1:15 p.m. that it would “not lift the suspension on the Davao City Sanitary Landfill until the city completes strict safety and engineering interventions by June 9.”
The DENR also presented options to the city government to help it cope with the suspension: coordinate with neighboring local governments such as the town of Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur and Panabo City in Davao del Norte, for temporary disposal; co-process arrangements with Holcim-Geocycle for residual waste, fast-tracking the use of a new SLF under development, and establish a temporary disposal area within the current SLF, subject to slope stabilization. (Yas D Ocampo / MindaNews)
