Justice plea over dump collapse

Survivors say local officials should have warned them of the danger

Relatives of more than 200 people who died in the collapse of a Philippine rubbish dump last month have petitioned the government demanding it prosecutes three local officials they say were responsible for the tragedy.

The final death toll from the tragedy may never be known

Lawyers acting for the families made a formal request to government Ombudsman Aniano Desierto to indict the officials for "mass homicide through reckless imprudence".

At least 218 people died when a mountain of rubbish at the Payatas dump near Manila collapsed, swamping a community of scavengers who scraped a living picking through the refuse.

The lawyers say the local government was at fault for failing to warn the community of the danger they were in.

They are also seeking further charges against senior government officials for "gross negligence, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of public service, incompetence and inefficiency in the performance of official functions".

The landslide is thought to have been triggered by weeks of torrential rains and typhoon conditions.

Earlier this month survivors of the tragedy announced that they would be suing the local government and the operators of the Payatas dump for $20m in damages.

Relatives have already said they plan to sue for compensation

The survivors say that as many as 100 bodies may remain buried under the tonnes of collapsed rubbish.

With no official record of people who had been living on the dump and with many families thought to have been entirely wiped out it is unlikely that the final death toll from the disaster will ever be known.

Until its closure following the collapse, the Payatas dump was the primary disposal centre for the 7,000 tonnes of rubbish produced daily by metropolitan Manila.