Montano has won numerous acting awards in Panaghoy sa Suba ("The Call of the River"), José Rizal, Muro Ami ("Reef Hunters") and Bagong Buwan ("New Moon").

Montano is known for his collaboration with the late Toto Natividad, who directed his movies Leonardo Delos Reyes: Alyas Waway (1993), Utol (1996), Biláng na ang Araw mo (1996), Pusakal (1997), Sanggano (1997), Kasangga Kahit Kelan (1998), Warfreak (1998), and Type Kita Walang Kokontra (1999).

In 1999 film Muro Ami, he played Fredo, the boss of child laborers in the illegal fishing industry.

In 1999, Montano marked his directorial debut with Bullet, in which he co-wrote and starred as the titular character, an autistic person with a special skill in marksmanship.

It collected Second Best Picture (to Mano Po III: My Love), Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score and the Gatpuno Villegas Cultural Award at the Metro Manila Film Festival, 2004;[13] and Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress at Gawad Suri Awards, Manila, 2005.

[16] Panaghoy sa Suba was invited as an exhibition in the Tous les cinémas du Monde (Movies of the World) at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.

He played Juan Pajota in the Miramax Film set in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, in 1945 during World War II.

[19] Montano was cast in another U.S. film, Another Deep Breath, scheduled to start shooting in the San Francisco Bay Area in March 2005.

He sings a duet on the second version "Kailan Ko Lang Sinabi" (When I Just Told You) with his wife, Sunshine Cruz, who is also a Filipino actress and recording artist.

[23] On May 19, 2009, he was appointed by then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as her Presidential Special Envoy for Film and Digital Cinema, a newly created position accorded ambassador rank and given diplomatic status by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

[24][25] He then again attempted to be involved in politics on October 13, 2009, when he filed his candidacy for governor in his home province Bohol under Liberal Party.

Montano describes his father as a strict disciplinarian, and his mother imposing her religion's prohibitions against pork and movies.

[citation needed] He completed his bachelor's degree in Mass Communication at Lyceum of the Philippines University in Intramuros, Manila in 2009.

Montano then worshipped at the Bread of Life Ministries International evangelical church in Quezon City, before becoming a congregant at Christ's Commission Fellowship in Mandaluyong together with his second wife, Sunshine Cruz, and his children.

Their second child, Christian Angelo Manhilot, died at the age of 23 on March 26, 2010, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at their house in Quezon City.

[38] He's currently in a relationship with his domestic partner Socorro "Kath" Angeles, to whom he had 3 children, Liam, Samuel and Kristen.