Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte has placed responsibility for the city’s growing waste problem on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, citing its decision to halt operations at the sanitary landfill in Barangay New Carmen.
In his telling, the city has done what was asked of it. The areas surrounding the facility have been cleared of residents, and the danger to life has passed, leaving only fixes that he argues can proceed without keeping the entire site idle.
“The people living around the landfill have already been evacuated. The threat to human life has been addressed. What remains are corrective measures that can be undertaken while allowing landfill operations to continue based on sound and practical judgment,” he said. The mayor maintained that the city’s own evaluation shows the landfill is ready to function again.
“Instead, the DENR chose to suspend the entire operation without providing a clear timeline for reopening,” he added.
Duterte raised the volume of waste at stake and the population it affects, framing the dispute as one that should weigh everyday consequences alongside policy. “We are complying with all requirements. We only hope that decisions affecting around 750 tons of waste daily and nearly two million Dabawenyos are guided not only by regulations, but also by practical realities and common sense,” he said.
His sharpest words came in a statement circulated online on Thursday, where he tied the delays directly to the agency’s handling of the matter. “The longer this situation continues, the greater the risk of a public health and sanitation problem—not because of the waste itself, but because of the bureaucratic ineptitude of the DENR,” Duterte said. Collection across the city has slowed over the two weeks the facility has stayed shut, a delay he conceded was underway.
The agency’s account, issued through its regional office on Friday, describes a process still in motion rather than a flat refusal. It said Davao officials had floated setting up a temporary dumping zone inside the 11-hectare property, conditioned on engineering work the DENR would specify. The city, according to the office, pledged to finish that work by June 9, after which the agency would check slope stabilization, drainage and other safeguards before signing off.
The shutdown itself dates to May 22, two days after a trash slide on May 20 sent waste cascading onto 15 homes in an adjacent community. Two people died, and one remained unaccounted for as of Friday. The DENR has said it ordered the stoppage “to secure the ongoing search and retrieval operations, enable geotechnical assessments, and prevent further risks to nearby communities.” Roughly 180 families were moved out of the area afterward, while crews kept searching for a woman thought to be trapped beneath the debris. The city had formally requested a reversal of the closure on May 26.
Earlier, the mayor had taken a more pointed approach, saying the city designated extra collection sites, one of them directly outside the DENR regional office, “so they can personally appreciate the volume of garbage that accumulates when an essential public service is halted indefinitely.”
