With no halt orders in the way, Monterrazas de Cebu resumes operations

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The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) lifted its stoppage order against Monterazzas, and the Cebu City Council opted against issuing a cease and desist order

CEBU, Philippines – Monterrazas de Cebu developer The Mont Property Group revealed in a press conference on Wednesday, April 15, that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has lifted its stoppage order on the company, allowing it to continue operations.

This happened after the Cebu City government ruled against issuing a cease and desist order (CDO) on the company. Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival announced on Monday, April 13, that he would not object to the Cebu City Council’s March 24 decision not to push through with the CDO.

In an order issued by DENR Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Central Visayas Director John Edward Ang on April 6, the agency tackled the Monterrazas’ case involving violations of Presidential Decree No. 1586 and its implementing rules and regulations.

PD No. 1586 established the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System, which makes the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) a mandatory requirement for projects that are environmentally critical or located in environmentally critical areas.

On November 14, 2025, DENR Central Visayas Director Laudemir Salac told lawmakers during a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing that the Monterazzas violated 10 out of the 33 conditions in its ECC.

The DENR–EMB Central Visayas office acknowledged that the company already paid its fine of P400,000 on February 16, 2026, and complied with its commitments made during a technical conference led by the DENR on November 13, 2025.

“Thus, the lifting of the stoppage order dated November 10, 2025 is in order,” the DENR-EMB Central Visayas Office said.

Operations continue

According to the Mont Property Group, the company has rehabilitated all of its retention ponds that were damaged due to the impact of Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi) on November 4, 2025.

“That was part of the commitment that the DENR–EMB, one of the requirements was the rehabilitation, and that was complied way back January [2026],” Mont Property Group construction head Ranel Pelpinosas said during the Wednesday press conference.

To recall, the DENR said that the collapse of two retention ponds in the Monterrazas contributed to the heavy floods that hit Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City on November 4, 2025.

The Monterrazas de Cebu is located uphill from the major residential area of Guadalupe.

Mont Property Group general manager Camille Bondad said during the press conference that the company has also complied with other commitments such as having a wastewater discharge permit and working with local officials to address flooding problems.

“We reached out to other adjacent villages. We actually entered into agreements with some village associations to help them improve in terms of their drainage systems,” Bondad told reporters.

Ponds reduced flood risks

An evaluation on water movement in the Guadalupe and Kinalumsan River Basins conducted by the University of the Philippines College of Science’s Institute of Environmental Science & Meteorology (UPD-CS-IESM) found that Monterrazas’ retention ponds helped mitigate flash floods in areas near the property.

The UPD-CS-IESM Environmental Hydrology Laboratory compared flood simulations wherein the Monterrazas property did not exist, existed but had no retention ponds, and when both the property and the retention ponds were present.

According to the institute, Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi) was an extreme rainfall event that brought 428 millimeters of rain to Cebu within 24 hours of the weather event.

“Simulations show that retention ponds reduced peak runoff by approximately 70% to nearly 100%, depending on rainfall intensity and available storage, and up to 99.74% of excess rainfall was retained or delayed during the event,” the institute said.

It explained that the retention ponds were able to trap nearly all of the extra rainwater from the typhoon, and allowed it to pour out slowly instead of all at once.

“The chain of detention ponds within Monterrazas helped reduce the amount of water flowing downstream. Because of this, flooding in the lower areas was not as deep as it could have been without the ponds,” the study said. – Rappler.com