A 20-year-old employee at the private sanitary landfill in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City saved three individuals from a collapsed structure.

John Lloyd Ople, deemed “Binaliw hero,” works as a spotter at the landfill facility. He is the person who was able to take an actual video of the trash slide on January 8, 2026. 

He ran toward the facility to save colleagues. 

He was able to take a video of the incident while monitoring an area as part of his job as a spotter. He said he was terrified by the incident. 

Despite being shaken by fear, he rushed to Ground Zero when he heard fellow workers crying out for help. He forgot about his own safety, he said. He said the pleas he heard made him rush at once to the area. 

The sight of persons pinned in metal debris and garbage is heart-wrenching, he said.

Along with friends, he tried to rescue employees. 

John Lloyd pulled from the debris the woman who was first rushed to the hospital but expired there. He returned to the site quickly and tried to save his cousin who is among persons pinned in the rubble, but authorities stopped him. 

It was a good thing, he said, that his friend pulled his cousin from the rubble. His cousin is among persons recuperating at the hospital, as of this writing.

Amid the heroic act, John Lloyd said he is sad and has regrets at not being able to save his relatives, such as a cousin named “Rowena." The woman is among the initial 19 fatalities in the trash slide.

The Cebu City Council is set to recognize John Lloyd’s heroic act.