Garbage Collapse at Rizal Landfill Leaves 3 Missing

A garbage pile collapsed at a privately operated landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal province, east of Manila, on February 20, 2026, leaving three people missing and prompting ongoing search and rescue operations, authorities confirmed.

The incident occurred at the Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfill in Barangay San Isidro, specifically Sitio 1B Harangan. Local officials initially reported that the three missing individuals were scavengers present at the site when a massive heap of waste gave way in the afternoon. The Office of Civil Defense, citing the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Rodriguez, described the event as the collapse of a piled-up mound of garbage rather than a full-scale slide. Search efforts, which began two days after the collapse, involve manual retrieval due to the unstable terrain, according to Rodriguez Mayor Ronnie Evangelista. He noted that operations continued as of February 22, with responders assessing risks to nearby communities.

Early accounts from residents and an urban poor group suggested up to 50 people, mostly scavengers, might have been buried, but officials across multiple agencies dismissed these claims as inaccurate. The...