Bienvinido Ranido, whose wife Rowena was among the fatalities of a deadly landfill collapse in the Philippines' Cebu City, wiped away tears as his family and relatives grieved her passing.

Ranido, speaking to Reuters in his family home where the funeral was held on Sunday (January 11), recounted how he rushed on Thursday (January 8) to the Binaliw landfill, Rowena's workplace, after seeing people flee from the site only about 300 metres from his home.

“My immediate thoughts went to my wife. I took my motorcycle and rushed to the landfill. When I got there, I saw the building had collapsed and was buried under garbage. I just screamed,” he said.

Ranido said his wife remained trapped for more than a day before rescuers were able to retrieve her body. He said one of the survivors had initially seen her alive but was stuck underneath the debris.

He lamented that his wife might still be alive if rescuers were able to get to her in time.

“When she was still alive, they could not get to her because she was trapped and they said they needed the right tools, and it's also a risk to the rescuers since the debris might give way. My only question is, why did the debris not give way when they eventually extracted my dead wife?"

He appealed for aid, particularly for the continued education of his three children, since he was currently unemployed and his wife was the breadwinner of the family.

Authorities said 110 workers were on site when the landfill collapsed, damaging several structures and burying multiple personnel. The Bureau of Fire Protection on Sunday confirmed six deaths, with 31 people still unaccounted for. Search and rescue operations were continuing.

Production: Jay Ereno, Peter Blaza/Reuters