Philippines & Davao · Article
Davao City Council Creates Interim Hazard Zone Around New Carmen Landfill After Deadly Trash Slide
The ordinance limits settlement and construction for at least five years while engineers work to stabilize steep slopes, and El Niño could make the risk worse
Published · Updated · 6 min read
# Davao City Council Creates Interim Hazard Zone Around New Carmen Landfill After Deadly Trash Slide
The ordinance limits settlement and construction for at least five years while engineers work to stabilize steep slopes, and El Niño could make the risk worse
By Kaeleb Savon Heck | Mr. Blindbandit Chronicle. This is original reporting and analysis based on the public sources listed at the end.
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The Davao City Council has approved an ordinance that sets up an Interim Hazard Management Zone (IHMZ) in and around the New Carmen Sanitary Landfill in Tugbok District. For at least five years, new homes, new construction and access will be restricted while the city works to stabilize slopes that gave way in a deadly trash slide in May.
Councilors passed the measure on third and final reading at their 42nd regular session on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, SunStar Davao reported. The author is Councilor Alberto Ungab, who chairs the council's Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. He said the restrictions are meant to be temporary even though the underlying danger is not.
"That's why it's called interim or temporary. The hazard is permanent. But the situation is temporary," Ungab said at the Pulong-Pulong sa Dabawenyos media forum at the Sangguniang Panlungsod on Tuesday, according to SunStar. He added that once the hazard is controlled, people with homes in the area could return, but "they cannot live there now."
Background: the May 20 collapse
The ordinance follows a disaster at the old sanitary landfill in Barangay New Carmen. On May 20, 2026, part of a garbage mound collapsed. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources–Davao (DENR-Davao) reported two people dead, one missing and two injured. Authorities said water from heavy rains had built up in the mound before it gave way and buried a nearby house.
DENR suspended waste disposal at the site after the collapse. In June, the DENR Environmental Management Bureau in Davao ordered the old landfill closed permanently and moved the city's waste disposal to an interim cell inside the new sanitary landfill next to it. DENR said that cell was structurally ready to take waste as of June 18.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development–Davao had earlier profiled 22 families affected by the May incident, SunStar reported.
What the ordinance does
The ordinance splits the hazard area into seven zones, according to SunStar:
- a no-build zone
- a no-settlement zone
- a controlled access zone
- an engineering intervention zone
- a buffer zone
- a monitoring zone
- technical or monitoring sub-areas within those zones
The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) will draw the official hazard maps that set each boundary, working with other city offices. Ungab said the boundaries will follow the landfill footprint, which includes the closed old landfill and the new one beside it. Work will start in the highest-risk areas and expand as technical assessments come in.
Key rules, as reported:
- No new residential occupancy in the no-settlement zone.
- No new construction or land development in the no-build zone without written authorization from the city.
- Entry to controlled-access areas may be limited to authorized personnel, emergency responders, contractors, and property owners with specific clearance.
- Property owners must allow government inspections and report ground movement, soil cracking or other warning signs to the CDRRMO.
Safeguards for residents and landowners
The ordinance includes property-rights protections. According to SunStar, it says the restrictions are temporary and preventive and are not a permanent taking of property or expropriation. No phase of implementation authorizes eviction or demolition outside the procedures the law requires. Existing lawful uses are not automatically banned just because land falls inside the zone, and minor repairs that do not enlarge existing structures are allowed with permits.
Ungab said the committee's last hearing found no houses or residents left inside the area. Most of the affected residents, many of whom have farm lots below the landfill, relocated voluntarily with the city government's help. "And we're trying to control that they're not going back there," he said.
How restrictions get lifted
The ordinance creates a Hazard Management Technical Working Group made up of the CDRRMO, the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO), the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), and other offices. Residents may return once the group declares the hazard controllable. The group can also recommend that the City Mayor lift restrictions on particular portions instead of the whole zone at once.
Analysis: why slope stability is hard, and why El Niño matters
Ungab was open about the engineering problem. "It's not easy to stabilize, especially because of the terrain," he said, noting that the slope is still steep. The CDRRMO and CPDO are leading the stabilization and safety work.
He also pointed to a risk that is easy to miss: drought. City offices have spent October preparing for a possible strong El Niño. Ungab explained that dry soil cracks, and when rain later seeps into those cracks, landslides can follow. So a long dry spell does not make the site safer. It can set up a more dangerous failure when the rains come back.
That fits a broader pattern. Waste mounds are not natural hillsides. They are built from mixed, compressible material that holds water and produces gas as it breaks down. Landfill collapses around the world have tended to follow heavy rain and poor drainage, which matches what authorities described at New Carmen.
The ordinance's structure, with layered zones, mapped boundaries, a technical group and phased lifting, treats the problem as an ongoing risk to manage rather than an emergency that ends. The five-year minimum shows the city does not expect a quick fix.
The accessibility angle
For residents with disabilities, older people, and families with limited mobility, hazard zoning affects daily life. Relocation, new travel routes to farm lots, and limits on returning home weigh most on people who cannot easily adapt. Reported coverage does not describe disability-specific provisions in the ordinance. As the CDRRMO prepares hazard maps and public notices, making them available in accessible formats, such as plain-language Cebuano and Filipino summaries, audio announcements, and maps described in text, would help every affected household understand where they can and cannot go.
What's next
- Hazard maps. The CDRRMO and partner offices still have to produce the official maps that make the zones enforceable on the ground.
- Stabilization works. Engineering work continues on the steep slopes under the CDRRMO and CPDO.
- Monitoring through El Niño and the next rainy season. The coming dry months and the rains after them will test the site.
- Phased reopening. Any return of residents depends on the technical working group declaring specific areas controllable.
The Chronicle will follow the ordinance's implementation and the city's El Niño preparations.