CEBU CITY, PHILIPPINES — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has raised the possibility of asking the Supreme Court to allow Cebu City to temporarily use the closed Inayawan landfill as a transfer facility.
However, Councilor Joel Capili Garganera, chair of the City Council’s environment committee and currently in Yokohama for a waste management training, expressed sharp objection against the DENR presented option.
Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla, who was in Cebu for an emergency meeting with provincial and city leaders, said the DENR plan is being considered to immediately provide Cebu City with an area for the disposal of its waste, following the deadly garbage collapse at the Binaliw landfill.
Mayor Nestor Archival confirmed Lotilla’s presence at the January 22 meeting at the Cebu Provincial Capitol, where urgent measures were discussed to address Cebu City’s garbage crisis.
The Cebu Provincial Government’s official page had reported that Lotilla raised the Supreme Court option during the meeting, alongside DENR’s assistance in identifying alternative landfill sites for Cebu City.
Garganera objects Inayawan reopening
Inayawan, permanently shut down after a Supreme Court ruling almost a decade ago that declared it an open dumpsite in violation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, is now being revisited as Cebu City struggles to manage its daily 600 tons of garbage.
Councilor Garganera recalled his 2016 filing of a Writ of Kalikasan against the Inayawan landfill, where he included EMB-DENR for what he described as “remiss of their duties” in monitoring compliance with the ECC.
“In 2016, I filed the Writ of Kalikasan because they failed in their duties. They paved the way for the reopening then, and now they want to reopen again,” Garganera said in an interview with The Freeman.
“They failed in monitoring Binaliw, which was covered by their ECC. They failed again, and now they are trying to reopen a landfill, an open dumpsite, which is also their fault. From palpak to another palpak and now another palpak in the making,” he added.
While DENR is proposing to reopen Inayawan, Garganera sees no point in arguing further with the agency. “To make the long story short, I will leave it to the court, because to me, there is no point in arguing with them. They are the cause of all of this, remiss of their duties. We are trying to commit a wrong thing to correct a wrong. Wa ko kasabot. I will just leave it to the court.”
Garganera also stressed that Cebu City should negotiate directly with host LGUs rather than rely on DENR. He disclosed suggesting to Mayor Archival distributing Cebu City’s garbage across Naga, Talisay, and eventually Toledo once its facility opens, to avoid overwhelming any single locality.
“As it is right now, we are relying on DENR to negotiate all of this. Palpak man ni sila. From 2016 up to now, sila may root cause ani. Dili man ni reliable sila,” he said.
The Freeman also tried to reach Barangay Inayawan Captain Kirk Repollo but was not available as of presstime.
A few days after the Binaliw incident, however, he said that his office has received no communication from the city government yet about reopening Inayawan as a transfer station.
He recalled that the facility was issued a Cease and Desist Order in July 2021, along with compliance requirements and fines. “I just don’t know if they have already complied with it,” Repollo said.
Minglanilla rejects Cebu City garbage
Lotilla accordingly said that DENR is working with local governments to explore interim measures, including transfer stations and stricter enforcement of segregation, while longer-term solutions are developed.
However, Mayor Rajiv Enad of Minglanilla had categorically rejected the proposal to dump Cebu City’s garbage in Barangay Manduang, citing both environmental and social injustice.
He presented petitions and manifestos from barangay captains, SK leaders, and thousands of residents opposing the plan.
“Transferring the burden of a big city like Cebu to a small town like Minglanilla is unreasonable and fundamentally unjust,” Enad said, noting that the private landfill in Manduang has been closed for three years and continues to pollute local rivers.
Representative Rhea Gullas (First District, Cebu) echoed Enad’s stand, declaring: “I fully support the strong and principled stand of Mayor Rajiv Enad. It is unreasonable and fundamentally unjust to transfer the environmental and social burden of a highly urbanized city to a municipality. Minglanilla first is not just a slogan, it is a call for environmental justice, public health, and fairness.”
Almost a week before the Capitol meeting, DENR had already directed EMB-7 and MGB-7 to pursue immediate containment measures at Binaliw while developing long-term solutions for Cebu’s solid waste management system.
Lotilla instructed technical teams to conduct rapid appraisals, strengthen enforcement, and design rehabilitation plans, stressing that solid waste management is “a combination of environmental, engineering, and governance challenges that demands comprehensive, long-term, and equitable solutions.”
The reopening of Inayawan remains only a possibility, but the debate has exposed deep divisions between national agencies and local governments.
For Cebu City, the crisis underscores the urgent need for sustainable and legally sound solutions to its mounting garbage problem.
Garganera’s decision to leave the matter to the courts highlights how the city’s waste management challenges are not only technical but also deeply legal and institutional, rooted in years of unresolved disputes over compliance, accountability, and governance.
| Written by Caecent No-ot Magsumbol/RAE
