EXPLAINER: Environmental violations of Navotas landfill operator

MANILA, Philippines – Navotas landfill operator Phil Ecology Systems Corporation (Phileco) has had a series of administrative and operational violations since 2022, prior to the scorching landfill fire that has so far displaced 120 Bulacan residents.

Since 2022, the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) in Metro Manila has issued 10 notices of violation flagging Phileco. EMB is the office in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that handles environmental compliance.

According to the EMB, Phileco previously failed to secure operational permits for some additional air pollution source installation, submit assessment reports on monitoring protocols, and non-conformance with provisions of environmental laws including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

Many of these are violations of the company’s environmental compliance certificate or ECC.

Among the ECC violations are:

• Failure to install rainwater harvesting storage tank 
• Failure to submit a revised Odor and Leachate Management Plan within 60 days of ECC issuance
• Failure to submit an assessment report on the monitoring protocol for soil chemistry, groundwater, marine water, and air quality
• Failure to conduct an effective information, education and communication program for its stakeholders, including “options for the use of the project after closure”
• Failure to comply with provisions in Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Ecological Solid Waste Management Act
• Failure to ensure that the daily earth-covering materials of at least six inches in thickness is applied at the end of each workday 
• Failure to properly maintain gas collection system to prevent leakage, gas accumulation, and migration

The company has paid P39,000 in penalties since 2022 to settle two notices. They have yet to settle at least P400,000 in fines, according to an update from EMB.

The environment bureau is still waiting for Phileco’s responses until Friday, May 8 regarding the last two notices they issued in April. The last one was on Phileco’s failure to implement the abandonment plan within the settled timeline.

Janice Pammit, the regional director of EMB in Metro Manila, previously specified non-compliance with the required daily soil cover and number of gas vent pipes when asked of major violations that the company committed.

Phileco started operating the landfill in 2006; the firm’s franchise with the government over the landfill property ended in August 2025. A court-approved expropriation in 2023 turned over the property to San Miguel Aerocity Inc. for development related to the New Manila International Airport.

In an April 13 interview with DZMM Teleradyo, Navotas City Mayor John Rey Tiangco said Phileco left the property after it was expropriated and transferred to San Miguel Aerocity Inc.

“Inamin nila na umalis sila diyan dahil may court case, naglalaban po sila ng isang private company,” Tiangco said. 

(They admitted they left the area due to a court case, they had fought against a private company [San Miguel Aerocity].)

Phileco reportedly said it has not had control or access to the landfill since February 13 after a court served a notice to vacate the property. It was quoted as saying that it had warned of the landfill’s potential fire hazards. 

Phileco is chaired by businessman Reghis Romero II, founder of construction firm R-II Builders, the company which undertook the 79-hectare Smokey Mountain Development and Reclamation Project in Tondo, Manila, with the National Housing Authority during the Cory Aquino and Fidel Ramos administrations. Romero was appointed special envoy to Japan by former president Rodrigo Duterte and reappointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Phileco is considered a major solid waste management company in the Philippines. The Navotas landfill used to cater to Manila’s trash, before it was diverted to the San Mateo landfill. Other landfill projects of the company, according to their website, are the Olongapo City Sanitary Landfill, Kabulihan Sanitary Landfill, General Santos City Sanitary Landfill Facility, and the Tagum City Sanitary Landfill.

“Phileco envisions itself to be the top waste management company in the Philippines, providing premium quality solutions to the complexities of the waste management industry with plans to expand in the ASEAN region in the years to come,” the company said in its description.

Holding accountable

Despite the expropriation of the property and the fire happening after the fact, the government clarifies that accountability rests on the operator.

“[K]ung sino ‘yung naka-lisensya sa atin, naka-permit sa atin, ‘yun po ang mananagot sa atin at ‘yun po ‘yung hahabulin natin,” Norlito Eneran, DENR assistant secretary for legal affairs and enforcement, said in a press conference on April 30.

“’Yun din po ang sa tingin po titingnan ng Office of the Solicitor General in evaluating these documents.”

(Whoever has a license with us, who has a permit with us, we’re going to hold them accountable. That’s what I think the Office of the Solicitor General is going to look at when evaluating these documents.)

A total of 120 families affected by the heavy smoke from the Navotas landfill fire evacuated to the Obando National High School, according to the DENR.

“We are not only responding to the smoke. We are also looking at why this happened, what standards may have been violated, and what must be corrected so communities are not put at risk again,” Environment Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna said in a statement on May 3, following a visit to the evacuation center. – Rappler.com