Justice beyond Cabral’s death

The circumstance surrounding the death of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Maria Catalina “Cathy” Cabral was un-officially declared not as a case of suicide. Cabral was found dead at the foot of a 40-meter deep ravine along the road in Tuba, Benguet last Thursday night. Her bereaved husband Cesar and their children believed she had an accidental slip.

As of this writing, police authorities have yet to definitively conclude if there was foul play, if any. And much more importantly, as Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla emphasized, to determine if indeed the recovered remains were that of Cabral.

This is not being un-Christian or a figment of conspiracy theories that resulted from her death.

It was just the rough vocabulary of the DILG chief that further fueled conspiracy theories being peddled around. Supposedly, a “fake” death might be resorted to to escape prosecution or some sort of “deal” with parties involved in the flood control scandal. Scene of the crime operatives recovered one of Cabral’s feet cut, found her hips broken and blunt force trauma to the head – all consistent with a person falling straight down.

Thus, Cabral’s husband Cesar admitted they issued and signed a “waiver” not to let her remains go through autopsy anymore. Autopsy is required before any official death certificate is issued for any suspicious death incident. Police authorities also demand the turnover of the victim’s mobile phone for further forensic examination.

According to her husband, his wife went ahead on a planned family trip to Baguio where they were scheduled to celebrate their eldest son’s birthday on Dec. 30. As a government engineer in the past, he rued his wife’s 42 years in public service is being besmirched by talks of family windfall from the supposed multibillion-peso estate left by her death.

The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) described Cabral as “one of the central figures in the ongoing investigation of reported anomalous government transactions” involving flood control and other infrastructure projects. The ICI, as created by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., was tasked to look into questionable flood control and other infrastructure projects for the past ten years.

The ICI investigations were primarily focusing on the DPWH as the head agency handling most of the government infrastructure projects from flood control to farm-to-market roads, school and classroom building, among others.

The ICI disclosed they summoned Cabral to appear last Monday, or three days before her death, but she made “no confirmation.” Narrating their last conversations before he agreed to let her leave ahead to Baguio, Cabral’s husband recalled he reminded her about the scheduled ICI hearing.

“O sige, para mawala yung mga iniisip mo,” he told her. Still, he pressed her to attend the ICI hearing: “Meron ka namang lawyer.” He quoted her cryptic reply: “Wala lang. Parang di ko gusto yung ano, parang minsan iba kasi ang ICI kung sino lang ang ano nila.”

Hence, suspicions of suicide arose. It is tragic, to say the least, if a person commits to end one’s life. In clinical terms, depression is one of the primary causes of suicide. When a person loses his or her coping mechanism, the only way out is ending one’s life.

Actually, Cabral had appeared before the fact-finding body on Sept. 24. In the ICI’s eighth and most recent interim report, Cabral was one of 15 officials recommended for plunder and bribery charges over budget insertions made to the National Expenditure Programs (NEPs) from 2023 to 2025. Notably, Cabral was not included in the original list of culprits sought by the ICI for charges in its Dec. 3 official statement issued to media. But for unknown reasons, the interim report released a day later included her and four others as part of the list.

The ICI interim report submitted to the Office of the President and subsequently filed with the Office of the Ombudsman relied heavily on the supplemental affidavit sworn to by one of Cabral’s co-accused, former fellow DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo. With the alleged blessing of former DPWH secretaries Mark Villar and Manuel Bonoan, Cabral purportedly had direct control over the insertions in the annual budget of the agency, Bernardo claimed.

Incidentally, Cabral rose to her present post in 2014 during the term of former DPWH secretary Rogelio Singson, who until recently served as one of the three-man ICI panel. Singson tendered to PBBM his irrevocable resignation that took effect last Dec. 15. The President has yet to name Singson’s replacement at the ICI.

In its interim report, the ICI narrative of its findings indicated that Cabral allegedly worked to include in the NEP projects of lawmakers, through a designated staff member of the “proponent” of the congressional insertion for “allocables” in the DPWH pipeline of projects. “Allocables” are basically pork-barrel 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, road works or street lights.

To determine the so-called “allocable NEP” per congressional district, Bernardo credited Cabral – albeit pejoratively – for coming up with DPWH jargon called “BBM.” Obviously referring to the President’s initials, Cabral coined this to stand for “Baselined, Balanced and Managed.” However, Bernardo pointed to Cabral as the only DPWH official who understood her own “invented parametric formula” for BBM projects in the NEP.

But Cabral’s due diligence impressed lawmakers who never dipped their fingers into DPWH “allocables” in the annual budget bills. Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste have only kind words for the late DPWH undersecretary.

Fortunately, Leviste was able to secure what he called the “Cabral files” on these congressional allocables and its proponents. Voluntarily appearing before the ICI, Leviste submitted the soft copies of these “Cabral files” on a hard drive copied from her official DPWH computer before she submitted her courtesy resignation on Sept. 1.

For all intents and purposes, truth and justice will not die with Cabral’s death.