4 missing landfill workers feared dead

MANILA, Philippines - It would take at least a month for rescue workers to reach the area where the four landfill employees were buried when the garbage collapsed last Friday in Rodriguez, Rizal, a police official said yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Rolando Anduyan, Rizal police director, believes that backhoe operator Gerry Balahibo and his companions Paquito Esto, Rodovico Ngulod and Eddie Galano are already dead.

Anduyan said there is no way the missing workers could survive the incident as they were buried alive by at least two mountains of garbage.

At least six backhoes and ten trucks were conducting rescue operations for three successive days now but the workers have yet to be found.

“With the rate the rescue operations is going on, it would take at least a month to clear the area of garbage,” Anduyan said.

Before the dumpsite collapsed, there was heavy rain in the area that could have loosened the garbage, said Andu-yan.