Last year’s Typhoon Tino dropped a month’s worth of rain over the course of a few hours, and left behind hundreds of deaths and millions of pesos in agricultural and structural damage. For some, Tino was an unavoidable tragedy and the direct result of an unforeseen natural disaster. But with questions of flood control and ghost projects, to others, it was an example of how corruption and institutional incompetence directly resulted in the loss of Filipino lives.
After firsthand accounts and videos of murky, mocha-colored flood waters surfaced in Barangay Guadalupe during the typhoon, many pointed to Slater Young’s The Rise at Monterrazas as a significant contributor to the flooding in Cebu. That is, on top of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) slamming a cease-to-operate order on the project last November.
However, after the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Region 7 (Central Visayas) confirmed that it lifted the cessation of operations order (CDO) against the Monterrazas project, Young broke his silence on the matter.
‘That tragedy was real, and it deserves real answers, not speculation, not misinformation,’ said the content creator/civil engineer in a statement posted on YouTube. ‘We also know that what we experienced is nothing compared to the suffering of those who were directly affected by the flood. We tried to never lose sight of that, and we waited for the truth.’
Slater’s defense
‘When the accusations were made against the Monterrazas project, our first instinct was to respond immediately, but we held back because we believed that the right thing to do was to let the proper investigations run its course, to let the science and evidence speak rather than to add to all the noise and confusion,’ added Young, putting forward an independent study conducted by the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (IESM) Environmental Hydrology Laboratory at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.
‘These were done by scientists with no connection to the project, no stake in the project,’ he added. ‘They found that Monterrazas did not cause or worsen the flooding. What caused it was the sheer volume of rain.’
According to the study, the Monterrazas project helped mitigate the occurrence of flash floods during Tino. Its detention ponds acted as stopgaps that held incoming rainwater, allowing it to flow slowly rather than having it all go down at once. The study also produced models and comparisons to prove that flooding levels would have been the same even without the existence of the Monterrazas site-and in fact, the project is said to have reduced overall flooding in the area by around two percent compared to if the area was left undeveloped.
‘The science does not just say we did not cause the flooding, it says that the systems we had built in place helped reduce it. This is not our conclusion; this is theirs. This study is public, and anyone who wishes to go through it is free to do so,’ shared the Pinoy Big Brother winner.
Though, despite the facts and figures Young has put forward, public opinion has largely been left unchanged, with others unconvinced of the validity of the UP study cited. Although Young claims that several third-party researchers have peer-reviewed the findings and have reached similar conclusions, all we have so far is a Facebook summary that won’t hold up as an undeniable fact.
Should the IESM Environmental Hydrology Laboratory publish the complete study and its findings are supported by more environmental organizations, then this would likely result in greater support for Monterrazas. But even then, it’s also safe to say that even that won’t have much impact on the court of public opinion.
‘We understand that for some, no study or finding will ever be enough. Grief does not follow a timeline, and we respect that,’ Young added. ‘But Cebu deserves real solutions and real solutions can only come from correctly identifying the real cause-that is, work that is ongoing, and Monterrazas is committed to being a part of it; I am committed to being a part of it.’
Reactive, never preventive
After the Monterrazas development was placed under scrutiny following Typhoon Tino, DENR initially halted the project, citing several breaches of forestry and environmental laws, notably the Forestry Code of the Philippines, the Clean Water Act, the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System, as well as lapses in their Environmental Compliance Certificate.
It’s also important to note that more than 700 trees were reportedly cut down within Monterraza’s 140-hectare property.
In short, these violations were happening right under our noses, and it took a region-wide disaster and several viral TikToks for anything to be done about it. And to make things worse, while Young’s statement addressed the flooding aspect of the controversy, nothing regarding the violations was ever discussed.
According to EMB-7 Regional Director John Edward Ang, the order was lifted on the basis of ‘documented remedial works, compliance milestones, and settlement of penalties’ by The Mont Property Group, Inc., meaning, penalties were paid off, and lapses were made up for-after hundreds of lives were lost to Typhoon Tino. Again, too little too late.
But as easy as it is to solely direct anger and attention towards Young and Monterrazas, DENR and the Cebu local government are also to blame. Frankly, the spotlight on Young has directed attention away from the P26 billion in flood control funds Cebu received from 2016 to 2025 that have amounted to nothing, and the rules and regulations that allowed Monterrazas to operate to begin with.
Through DENR and the Cebu local government, penalties can be paid off and cease to operate orders can be simply lifted. Meanwhile, the people of Cebu lost their friends and family, their property, and their livelihoods. But Young and The Mont Property Group, Inc.? Barely anything by their standards. A few hate comments, a slap on the wrist, and the approval to carry on with the project.
In the coming months, when typhoon season hits again, what will be their solution? Will it be to simply add more compliance checks? More detention pools? What about improving environmental compliance standards to begin with? Why not outright ban developments in flood-prone areas? In the end, Young and Monterrazas are only playing by the rules they’ve set.
Developers can handle the fines and penalties this game of trial and error asks for. But everyone else? The best they can do is survive the flood.
So yes, as Young says, Cebu deserves real solutions. But simply adhering to the bare minimum set by DENR and the local government won’t be enough. After all, it’s that bare minimum that got the people of Cebu to where they are today.