*Event date: 2026-01-18*
Search and retrieval operations at the landfill collapse site in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City, ended after rescuers found the last missing victim, bringing the death toll to 36, according to the supplied GMA News report. Officials said all reported individuals affected by the landslide had now been fully accounted for.
The report says the final body was found at 5:41 a.m. on Sunday. That timestamp matters because it marks the close of an operation that had stretched across days and involved repeated pauses because the site remained unstable. The Bureau of Fire Protection’s Cebu City fire station said systematic search, rescue and retrieval work had been completed and that no further missing persons remained.
This update changes the disaster from an active search to a confirmed recovery count. Earlier reports in the shard had already established that the Binaliw landfill collapse buried dozens of workers and left many missing. The new evidence confirms the final tally: 36 dead. It also adds that all reported individuals were now accounted for, which is the key operational endpoint for rescuers and families waiting for answers.
The report says the victims were employees of Prime Waste Solutions and several subcontractors, and that many were inside a 7-hectare company compound containing sorting, recycling and support facilities. That context matters because it shows the collapse struck a functioning worksite, not only a dump slope. It also helps explain why the recovery effort was so difficult: the site held buildings, conveyors and staff areas, all inside the affected compound.
Councilor Dave Tumulak, who chairs the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the rescue teams used K-9 units from Iloilo to help locate the bodies. He also said 24-hour rescue shifts had been organized because of the smell at the landfill. Those details reinforce the severity of the environment faced by responders, though they do not change the final casualty count.
The report notes that the landslide happened at the waste management facility on January 8 and that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas had already issued a cease-and-desist order against the operator. That gives the incident a regulatory afterlife beyond the rescue phase, with investigators and agencies expected to examine the facility’s role in the collapse.
For the families involved, the last missing body being found closes the search but not the loss. The confirmed outcome is stark: a landfill collapse in Cebu City killed 36 people, and by Sunday morning the final missing victim had been recovered.
