The Rise at Monterrazas is a 19-storey residential condominium under construction in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, Philippines. It is being developed by The Mont Property Group and was designed by LLG Architects Design Studio, and is one of several projects within Monterrazas de Cebu, a hillside estate in the uplands of the city.
The project drew criticism on environmental grounds when it was announced in 2023. After flooding in Cebu City during Typhoon Kalmaegi in November 2025, the wider Monterrazas de Cebu estate became the subject of a government investigation that led to a stoppage order, criminal and administrative cases against the developer, and a continuing dispute at Cebu City Hall over whether development should be halted.
Development and ownership
The Rise is located within, but distinct from, Monterrazas de Cebu. The estate was developed by Genvi Development Corporation and was acquired by 8990 Holdings Development Corporation in 2019. Reported figures for the site area vary: 2021 coverage described an estate of about 200 hectares (490 acres) spanning the barangays of Guadalupe, Sapangdaku, Buhisan and Tisa, while the Department of Environment and Natural Resources referred in 2025 to a 140-hectare property in Guadalupe and 2026 coverage described a 118-hectare development.
Slater Young, a civil engineer and online content creator, said he agreed in 2021 to partner with 8990 — a low-cost housing developer diversifying its portfolio — on the project, under a newly formed brand, The Mont Property Group. The corporate entity is referred to in later coverage as Mont Property Group, Inc. Young is the project's principal public spokesperson.
Development of the estate was halted by cease-and-desist orders in 2008 and 2011 under Cebu City mayors Tomas Osmeña and Michael Rama respectively, following flash floods and mudslides. These predate The Rise by more than a decade.
Design
LLG Architects Design Studio, based in Cebu, designed The Rise, with Leizle Go and Patrick Lendel Go as principal architects. The building steps down the hillside in terraces; the architects and Young have attributed the form to the Banaue Rice Terraces and described the approach as conforming to the terrain rather than building against it. The design was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The building is planned to contain 146 units.
Groundbreaking took place in November 2024.
Reception and environmental concerns
Young announced the project on 24 August 2023 through his YouTube channel, presenting a scale model. It drew criticism from environmental advocates and online commenters over vegetation loss, surface runoff and flooding risk to communities below the site. Critics referenced flooding in Cebu City during Typhoon Rai in 2021.
Joshua Agar, a wind engineer and assistant professor at the University of the Philippines Institute of Civil Engineering, said the design as presented in August 2023 would be subject to topographic amplification, producing substantially higher wind loads than a conventional site.
Young said the design had undergone roughly 300 revisions and that the team included sustainability specialists. In May 2024 he said the project had engaged the BERDE programme of the Philippine Green Building Council following the criticism, and that a site survey had found vegetation rather than forest. He described the consultation as ongoing and said he could not promise a five-star rating.
Awards
In May 2024 The Rise was one of five finalists in the Unbuilt Multi-Unit Housing (more than 10 floors) category of the Architizer A+Awards, and was separately shortlisted for a conceptual interior design category at the Asia Architecture and Design Awards. It received the jury award in its Architizer category in June 2024. It was also shortlisted at the 2024 World Architecture Festival.
2025 flooding and regulatory action
On 4 November 2025, Typhoon Kalmaegi, known in the Philippines as Tino, caused severe flooding in Barangay Guadalupe and other parts of Cebu City. Uphill development at Monterrazas de Cebu was publicly linked to the flooding. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure opened inquiries, and Cebu City inspected the site.
The DENR's Environmental Management Bureau issued a notice of violation and a stoppage order against the developer on 10 November 2025. Speaking at a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on 14 November, DENR Central Visayas regional director Laudemir Salac said operations had stopped and that the development had breached environmental laws.
The agency's findings were that a 2022 inventory had documented 745 trees on the site, of which 11 remained; that 10 of the 33 conditions of the project's amended Environmental Compliance Certificate had been breached; and that a required water discharge permit had not been secured. The DENR said the development implicated the Revised Forestry Code, the Clean Water Act and the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement System. Investigators reported that two of the estate's 17 detention ponds had failed and that several were damaged or silted, contributing to uncontained surface runoff into downstream waterways.
Mont Property Group rejected the tree-cutting finding, calling the claim that it had cut more than 700 trees "grievously false" and saying that only shrubs and secondary undergrowth had been cleared under its ECC and development permit. The company also said it had built detention capacity of 40,413 cubic metres against a required 26,701, and that most flood-affected areas lay in separate drainage basins.
On 3 December 2025 the DENR filed a criminal case against the corporation for violation of Section 77 of Presidential Decree No. 705, the Revised Forestry Code, announcing it at a briefing on 10 December. Accounts of the charge differ: some reports describe it as covering unlawful cutting, gathering or possession of timber and other forest products, others as unlawful possession of implements and devices used by forest officers. A separate administrative case was filed over the ECC conditions. The filing of charges does not itself establish liability.
Resumption and continuing dispute
On 25 March 2026 the Cebu City Council adopted a resolution declining, for the time being, to issue a cease-and-desist order. The council said technical findings did not attribute the flooding to the project alone, citing undersized drainage, tributary inflows, urbanisation and clogged waterways among the contributing factors, and took note of the estate's detention pond system, which the EMB put at 22 ponds holding about 62,468 cubic metres. The council cited a University of the Philippines hydrological study identifying 428 mm of rainfall and system-wide drainage problems as causes of the November 2025 flood.
The EMB lifted the stoppage order on 6 April 2026, in an order signed by regional director John Edward Ang that denied the developer's motion for partial reconsideration. The bureau said the developer had completed remedial works, complied with requirements under its ECC and settled penalties for violations of Presidential Decree No. 1586, and that continued monitoring would be necessary. The developer's construction head said damaged detention ponds had been repaired in January 2026. The fine was reported at ₱400,000.
In April 2026 Young cited a study by the University of the Philippines Diliman Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology attributing the flooding primarily to rainfall volume. Mayzonee Ligaray, who heads the institute's Environmental Hydrology Laboratory, then told Rappler that the work was a desktop analysis and was not yet complete. Mayor Nestor Archival said in April that he would defer to the council's position and that the project was not the cause of the flooding, while acknowledging that fixes were needed.
On 15 June 2026 Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña filed a proposed resolution urging Archival to issue a cease-and-desist order covering all development at Monterrazas except water-catchment and flood-mitigation work. The council's majority blocked the proposal the following day and referred the matter to its Technical Infrastructure Committee, describing an immediate order as premature. In a letter to Osmeña the same week, the developer said it had completed 24 detention ponds holding 62,710.50 cubic metres, against a regulatory requirement of 26,701. Councillors also called for a citywide review of hillside developments.
Notes
References
External links