Despite rain, finding last body buried in landfill continues

Despite the difficulty brought by sudden heavy rains, rescuers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) are working round the clock to retrieve the body of the remaining person buried alive in the trash slide in Rodriguez, Rizal sanitary landfill.

Edward Gonzalez, chief of MMDA Road Emergency Group (REG) said the search and retrieval team is hoping to find the body of Pablito Esto. Rain puts a stop in the 24-hour operation, which resumes immediately when the weather improves.

Gonzalez said 20 personnel from the MMDA have been working in shifts so the retrieval operations will not be delayed further.

Esto was among the four people buried alive in the trash slide. The three others have been recovered by the MMDA team last week.

The bodies of Eddie Malano and Rovidico Olod were discovered by the team a day after the first victim identified as Gary Balahibo was found and retrieved from inside a backhoe buried in the trash slide.

The four workers were conducting maintenance work in the sanitary landfill when a 30-meter high trash collapsed and buried them.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://www.mb.com.ph/article.php?aid=9683&sid=1&subid=2#.UX4iRHdbUnQ

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Two more bodies found in Rizal landfill

Two more workers buried in a mountain of garbage at the Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfill last Friday were identified Thursday morning, authorities said.

Calabarzon Police director Chief Superintendent Benito Estipona identified the victims as Eddie Malano and Rubidico Olog.

Malano, whose body was found at around 3:30 a.m., was identified through the motorcycle key in his pocket, according to Estipona and Dennis Taguno of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) rescue team.

Authorities said only half of Malano's body or his lower extremity was recovered. The other half of his body has yet to be found.

The body of Olog, meanwhile, was found at 9:15 a.m.

On Wednesday morning, the rescue team recovered the body of Garry Balahibo inside the backhoe that was also buried in last Friday's accident.

Balahibo was the operator of the backhoe.

Search and retrieval operations are still ongoing for Pablito Esto, also a landfill worker who went missing after the garbage dump collapsed.

The victims were conducting clearing operations for draining water in the area when the incident occurred on Friday.

Thursday 25 April 2013

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/04/25/13/one-and-half-bodies-found-rizal-landfill

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Trash slides common in less developed countries like Philippines

Last Friday's trash slide in Rodriguez town in Rizal province that buried at least three people highlighted once more the danger faced by people—sometimes whole families—who make a living out of scavenging trash.

Dave Petley, executive director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at Durham University in the United Kingdom, wrote on his blog that trash slides usually occur in less developed countries where a number of people make a living scavenging garbage, looking for objects—bottles, mineral water containers, plastic cups—that could be sold in junk shops.

He said those buried in the dump often die due to toxic gases released by the garbage. Petley added that garbage may also generate heat, causing hyperthermia.

“Life in such an environment is hard – garbage dumps are by definition unhealthy places that are also physically dangerous. Ironically, of course, these people are performing a valuable public service by recycling metals, plastics, etc., from which the rest of us benefit,” Petley wrote on his personal blog in 2008.

Of all trash slides in recent Philippine history, the one that occurred in July 2000 was the deadliest. In this incident, more than 500 people living on the slums of Payatas were buried alive when a mountain of garbage collapsed due to typhoon Edeng. Only 150 dead bodies were recovered.

The Irisan trash slide in Baguio City last August 2011 occurred when Typhoon Mina flooded the dumpsite and caused a retaining wall to collapse, sending an avalanche of trash down on the community below. At least five people, two of them children, were buried.

The following month, Typhoon Pedring triggered a landslide at Barangay New Cabalan in Olongapo City, killing a woman and her one-year-old daughter.

As of Monday, April 22, authorities were sifting through the trash that avalanched in Brgy. San Isidro in Rodriguez, Rizal, last Friday afternoon in hope of finding the three people reportedly buried there. Rescuers, however, were no longer optimistic that a survivor will be found.

Monday 22 April 2013

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/304979/news/nation/trash-slides-common-in-less-developed-countries-like-phl

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