DENR: Close to 1,000 trees cut due to Monterrazas project

Local

A GOVERNMENT inspection team has confirmed a drastic decline in the number of trees left standing inside the Monterrazas de Cebu development, with only 11 trees found on-site, down from 745 recorded in 2022.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources- Central Visayas (DENR-7) disclosed the findings following a joint assessment conducted last week. The inspection covered two days and involved multiple national and local agencies.

DENR-7 Assistant Regional Director Eddie Llamedo said the numbers do not match the 2022 inventory of the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO).

“Based on CCENRO’s 2022 records, there were 745 trees within the project area. When we went back to verify last Friday, we saw only 11,” Llamedo said in a televised interview.

He added that even if the land is classified as alienable and disposable, any tree cutting still requires a DENR-issued permit, as mandated under Section 77 of the Revised Forestry Code.

The inspection team, composed of DENR regional offices, EMB-7, MGB-7, PENRO Cebu, CENRO Cebu City, and the Cebu City Government, looked into four key components of the Monterrazas development:

• compliance with its amended Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC)

• capacity and functionality of detention ponds

• stormwater flow and whether runoff continues to affect nearby communities

• possible encroachment into timberland

Monterrazas currently holds a 2024 amended ECC covering about 240 hectares across Barangays Guadalupe and Subangdaku.

Part of the joint review focused on the development’s stormwater management structures. According to approved plans, the project should have:

• one central detention pond with a 3,500-cubic-meter capacity

• 15 additional ponds, each capable of storing 1,000 cubic meters

These would total around 18,500 cubic meters of storage to contain runoff during extreme weather.

However, Llamedo said the team counted only 12 ponds, which he described as “insufficient” given the estimated 183 millimeters of rainfall brought by Typhoon Tino.

The ponds’ capacity has become a focal point in public discussions, especially after videos went viral showing torrents of water rushing from the site during the typhoon, inundating parts of Guadalupe and nearby communities.

Responding to public questions on why steep mountain slopes can be privately developed, Llamedo explained that a series of presidential decrees in the 1980s reclassified lands in Cebu and Benguet with slopes above 18 percent as alienable and disposable.

This allowed such areas to be titled and later opened for private development.

He stressed, however, that developers in these upland zones must integrate open spaces, green systems, and nature-based protections into their plans. “It cannot be all construction,” he said.

The DENR official also revealed that Monterrazas is not the only project under scrutiny. The agency is currently assessing the drainage and detention systems of several developments across Cebu to ensure their capacity matches current rainfall patterns and updated engineering standards.

Concerns about Monterrazas are not new. The area was hit by floods and mudflows in 2008 and 2011, prompting previous cease-and-desist orders. But Typhoon Tino’s flooding revived public outrage after residents downstream endured sudden, waist-deep waters earlier this month.

Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival has ordered a parallel investigation to determine whether the project complied with its ECC and whether its operations aggravated flooding.

The DENR said it is preparing recommendations that could include sanctions, suspension of activities, or legal action if violations are proven.(TGP)