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TUBA, Benguet, Philippines — Former Department of Public Work and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral – one of the key figures in the ongoing investigation on anomalous flood control projects – was found dead in a ravine along Kennon Road, Camp 4, here on Thursday evening.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the autopsy on Cabral and initial findings pointed to suicide, but the government would still pursue the possibility of foul play, among others to dispel suspicions of conspiracy to silence her.
Remulla sacked the police chief of Tuba and provincial police chief of Benguet for mishandling of the incident, including turning over Cabral’s cell phone to her relatives.
Earlier Thursday, Cabral had told her driver, Ricardo Munos Hernandez, to stop by the roadside in Maramal, Camp 4, in Tuba, where Cabral stood near the rim of a steep 30-meter drop, but a policeman told them they could not stop there.
They proceeded to a hotel in Baguio City where they had something to eat. Remulla said CCTV footage showed that Cabral did not talk to anyone at the hotel, contrary to speculative reports.
Cabral then decided to proceed to La Union. Reaching the same spot in Maramal at around 3 p.m., she told Hernandez to pull over and to leave her. Hernandez did as he was told and drove away to look for a gas station.
When he returned, Cabral was nowhere to be found.
He drove back to the Baguio hotel where they came from, but did not find Cabral. Hernandez then drove back to the site where he left Cabral before reporting the matter to the Baguio City Police Office Station 8 along Camp 8 in Baguio City at approximately 7 p.m.
Police immediately conducted a search and discovered Cabral at around 8 p.m., lying unconscious and unresponsive near the Bued River, an estimated 20 to 30 meters below the highway.
Members of the Tuba Municipal Police Station, Tuba Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the Bureau of Fire Protection retrieved Cabral and brought her to a funeral parlor in Barangay Irisan, Baguio City.
Police reportedly held Hernandez for further questioning upon the request of her family.
“But the report to me is that the things he said were factual,” Remulla said, noting that the driver’s phone logs will also be examined to rule out foul play.
ICI calls for probe
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) is calling for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Cabral’s death.
In joining a wave of condolences for Cabral, the ICI also sought the retrieval of her gadgets that contain sensitive and critical information about the flood control mess.
“Cabral was one of the central figures in the ongoing investigation of anomalous government infrastructure projects,” the fact-finding body said in a statement yesterday by executive director Brian Keith Hosaka.
“As the former undersecretary for planning, she was no doubt privy to vital information. We, therefore, ask law enforcement agencies to immediately secure and preserve all her documents, gadgets and computers for possible digital forensics examination,” the ICI appealed.
“The commission likewise calls for a prompt and thorough investigation of the death of Cabral to ensure that there is no foul play. Should authorities determine one, it is possible that those responsible may also be connected to the anomalous infrastructure projects,” it added.
The ICI summoned Cabral to appear last Monday, but she made “no confirmation,” according to the commission’s officials. She appeared before the fact-finding body on Sept. 24.
In the ICI’s eighth and most recent interim report, Cabral is one of 15 officials recommended for plunder and bribery charges over budget insertions made to the National Expenditure Programs (NEPs) from 2023 to 2025.
Heavily relying on the supplemental affidavit of former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, the ICI stated that Cabral – with the blessing of former DPWH secretaries Mark Villar and Manuel Bonoan – had direct control over the insertions.
The report would show that Cabral allegedly worked to include projects committed to a lawmaker, as requested by an aide, in the NEP.
It was also Cabral whom Bernardo said was the only official to ever know and understand her invented parametric formula – dubbed as BBM, the nickname of the President, which stands for “Baselined, Balanced and Managed” – to determine the “allocable NEP” per district.
Allocables are basically pork funds determined at the earliest stage of the budget process, with its system reversed: district representatives are informed of their amounts before selecting projects, such as flood control, roadworks or street lights.
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reported that Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos got P15.8 billion in allocables from 2023 to 2025, while Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez got P14.4 billion.
Their amounts are substantially higher than the allocable set aside for the lawmaker of Rizal’s 1st district, the largest congressional district by population, which only received P7.8 billion.
According to the ICI, Cabral would allegedly make it appear that the allocable NEP had already been fully utilized when, in fact, she would “reserve a substantial percentage” of it for her and Bonoan.
Hosaka said last week that the ICI was bringing back Cabral because “there is information that the commission would want to get from her.” Reporters yesterday asked the executive director about that information, to no avail.
Evidence blunder
In an interview with “Storycon” on One News, Remulla said he ordered the relief of the chief of police of Tuba and the police provincial director in Benguet after investigators immediately treated the case as an “ordinary” suicide.
“A matter of this sensitive nature, (the area) has to be treated as a crime scene. They returned the personal effects of usec. Cabral to her husband,” Remulla said in Filipino.
“All indications show suicide… We just have to eliminate any other possible angle,” he added.
Suicides and other deaths through unnatural causes call for a police investigation.
Citing the conspiracy theories that have already emerged following Cabral’s death, Remulla said it is important to fully determine what happened.
“Number one, we have to know if there was foul play. Number two, we have to be certain that it was really her,” he added.
Remulla confirmed that Cabral’s family did not want her body to undergo autopsy, but the police was able to use its power to request for the procedure as part of its ongoing investigation.
Cabral’s body, which sustained multiple injuries consistent with blunt-force trauma due to a fall, will undergo DNA testing.
As to her gadgets, Remulla said these may be subpoenaed either by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group or the ombudsman.
Cabral’s family reportedly said she was in a good mood on Thursday morning.
He said Cabral had not mentioned threats to her safety since being implicated in the public works scandal, and had not asked for state protection.
Cabral, 63, was a civil engineer who rose through the ranks in the DPWH. She had doctorates and master’s degrees in management, and distinguished herself in a male-dominated field.
Malacañang expressed sadness over Cabral’s death.
“We extend our condolences to the family of former usec. Catalina Cabral, and we are saddened by what happened,” Palace press officer Claire Castro said in Filipino at a briefing.
Preserve Cabral files
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Cabral had been cooperative with the Senate Blue Ribbon committee investigation, with her camp having meetings with panel chairman Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson.
But Sotto said he was not sure if Cabral had mentioned an alleged list of lawmaker “proponents” who requested DPWH projects, as alleged by Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste.
At a Zoom briefing, Sotto cautioned the public against speculating about Cabral’s death – amid buzz that her death was suspicious – and calls to preserve her files to prevent a whitewash.
“It was unfortunate and tragic that former usec. Cathy Cabral would end her life at a time when she could have significantly contributed to blowing wide open the extent of corruption not only in flood control projects but all other anomalies in the infrastructure program of the DPWH,” Lacson said.
He said he hoped investigators would take custody of Cabral’s documents or files.
Meanwhile, Leviste yesterday asked authorities and concerned agencies to protect the witnesses in the flood control anomaly, and said an alleged list of proponents of DPWH insertions in Cabral’s computer can help uncover the truth in the ongoing flood control investigation. — Emmanuel Tupas, EJ Macababbad, Helen Flores, Jose Rodel Clapano, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Janvic Mateo
