Labor groups blame tragedy to waste management failure

“Do they have SSS, PhilHealth, and PAG-IBIG?

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Are there regular inspections by MGB-7, DENR-7, EMB-7, CCENRO, and DOLE-7? Could this have been prevented?” he asked.Paglinawan warned that without a serious, nonpartisan investigation, the tragedy risks being buried like the victims themselves—forgotten beneath layers of bureaucracy and impunity.

“Will this, too, turn out to be futile—like the probes into corruption, extrajudicial killings, and confidential fund misuse, where no big fish have been held accountable?” he added.

PNWWA echoed the call for a full, transparent, and independent investigation—not only into the collapse, but into the regulatory lapses that enabled it.

“Every time a landfill fails, it is the waste workers who are buried first,” the group said. “They are the first to be exposed to toxic waste, the last to be protected, and too often, the ones no one listens to.”

The alliance also demanded immediate medical, psychosocial, and livelihood assistance for affected families, and the urgent passage of the Magna Carta for Waste Workers (House Bill 6413) and amendments to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Law (House Bill 5221), which would criminalize gross violations that result in injury or death.