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January 13, 2026 | 6:17pm
MANILA, Philippines — Rep. Leandro Leviste made the mistake of suggesting that the late undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral had been offered a state witness deal if she implicated former Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman. Cabral’s lawyer, however, did not confirm any deal.
In an email exchange with Philstar.com on Tuesday, January 13, Cabral’s lawyer, Mae Divinagracia, clarified the late Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary was only offered the role of an “ordinary witness” and not a state witness in the ongoing flood control probe.
"I never confirmed any such deal," she said, adding that Cabral did not even apply to be a state witness.
"What she offered was to be an ordinary witness, and not state witness, because the latter would entail admission of complicity," Divinagracia explained.
No state witness deal
In media interviews, Divinagracia was asked whether Cabral had been offered a state witness deal if she linked Pangandaman to the anomalies in the infrastructure budget. She did not confirm this, saying in an ANC interview that she was not aware of any such offer.
After the interview, Leviste thanked Cabral’s lawyer in a January 6 statement for confirming that Cabral had told her he obtained documents from her office, including records on “district allocables” in the DPWH budget and requests made by other officials.
Leviste, however, also appeared to imply that Divinagracia had confirmed the existence of a state witness deal when he said Cabral chose not to accept it.
“As was asked in Atty. Divinagracia’s interview yesterday, I also heard that USec Cabral was told that she could be made state witness if she implicated DBM Secretary Mina Pangandaman, and USec Cabral did not do so because she did not want to say something that was not true," he said.
But Divinagracia said no such deal existed, explaining Cabral did not "connive in any criminal conspiracy."
She cited former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo's supplemental affidavit, where he admitted that discussions on the alleged kickback scheme in the infrastructure budget only involved former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan, and not with Cabral.
"He also admitted that all the supposed kickbacks were given to former Secretary Bonoan," Divinagracia said.
"Understandably so, they did not need former Undersecretary Cabral for their scheme to prosper," she added.
Only the Department of Justice can offer a state witness deal, which requires a witness to admit to criminal liability, as dismissed DPWH engineers Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza have done.
'Cabral followed orders'
Divinagracia pointed out that the testimonies show Bonoan only had to instruct Cabral to make changes in the agency's budget, and that she might have had no knowledge of the intention behind his instructions.
"All that former Secretary Bonoan needed to do was to give instructions to former Undersecretary Cabral and she would have no way of knowing the intention behind the instructions — whether or not it was pursuant to a fraudulent scheme," she said.
"This is because it had always been common practice for Secretaries, even in previous administrations, to give orders or instructions to study and review certain/specific projects for inclusion in the Annual Budget Proposal," she added.
In her interviews, Cabral's counsel also confirmed the existence of the parametric formula that Bonoan instructed Cabral to develop, and revealed how the late undersecretary alleged the House leadership overrode the formula to adjust their district's budget after they had been allotted lower funds.
As to how Leviste obtained the alleged budget documents, Divinagracia said Cabral did not detail how they were acquired from Cabral's office. This neither proves Leviste had lawfully obtained the files nor denies claims from DPWH staff that he had forcibly taken them.
Leviste, however, has maintained that he had authorization from DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon and from Cabral herself, a claim Dizon has repeatedly denied.
Cabral died on December 19, 2025, after falling into a ravine along Kennon Road in Benguet. Shortly after her death, Leviste released what he claimed were copies of her files, prompting authorities to verify their authenticity and independently establish the names and figures reflected in the documents.
Dizon, however, said the files would be released only with the approval of the Office of the Ombudsman, which he said has since taken custody of the documents as part of an ongoing investigation.
