One of survivors in the Binaliw trash slide in Cebu City recalled her harrowing experience a month after the tragedy, and shared her aspiration to keep going. 

Suzitte Balase, 43 years old, was pinned under the metal wreck of a collapsed structure on January 8, 2026, following the trash slide at a private sanitary landfill facility. 

She is among 17 employees of Prime Waste Solutions Cebu, Inc.

Her right arm is still on cast, but she is happy to have finally come home after days of hospitalization. The stitches on her left arm and left thigh, and the wound on her left foot are apparent.

Suzitte is a Human Resource (HR) staff member, and is in-charge of timekeeping and payroll.

She narrated that she was inside the office on the first floor of the collapsed structure. She heard a crashing sound, and stood up to take a look through the window, thinking that a machine malfunctioned.

Everything happened so fast, she said. The next thing she knew, she was already pinned under the rubble. 

While wedged in the wreck, she heard the screams of her workmates calling for help.

She cited that she was at the verge of passing out at that time due to the injuries she sustained. As she closed her eyes, she prayed. The haunting calls for help would still ring in her ears. 

She pointed out that rescuers had a hard time pulling her out of the debris, as trusses and nails obstructed spaces.

She implored that she be pulled out, whatever would be the consequence.

Later, she sensed that she was rushed to the hospital.

Despite the tragedy, Suzitte is thankful that God has granted her a second life.

However, she could not help from crying over the loss of colleagues. Rowena who was among the fatalities is her colleague at the HR Office. Rowena was pinned near her. She was expecting Rowena would also make it alive, as she was situated next to her under the rubble.

Suzitte clarified further that contrary to earlier reports, their company has attended to their needs and their benefits.

In fact, she said, days prior to the incident, they were celebrating the good news from the company on additional benefits to employees and their beneficiaries in 2026.

It was unexpectedly their last gathering, she would later say.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old John Lloyd Ople, the landfill spotter who was able to take a video of the trash slide and rescued three fellow workers, disclosed that he had not a wink of sleep for over a week, following the incident. He said faces of the victims would keep flashing in his mind.

However, lately, he has observed that the impact of the tragedy upon him has slowly abated.

John Lloyd has reported back to work at the landfill as an assistant to his cousin in electrical works.

He also said that paychecks were released to them despite the halt to the facility's operations. They also received two-months-worth of bonuses.

But Celestina Ople, his grandmother, does not want him to work back at the landfill.

Celestina said that landfill work is too dangerous to pursue.

She recalled she was so relieved upon learning John Lloyd is safe from that tragic moment, and that her own child and another grandchild were assigned at the night shift, spared from the deadly trash slide.

GMA Regional TV Balitang Bisdak tried to visit the site a month after the incident, but was barred from getting inside the facility.

As of this writing, Prime Waste Solutions has not issued a new statement yet. Neither has the Cebu City Government issued a related statement lately.