BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Police are investigating an incident involving Maria Catalina Cabral, a former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary, who was found unconscious near the Bued River along Kennon Road in Tuba, Benguet, on Wednesday night, December 18.

The Benguet Police Provincial Office (PPO) said Cabral was discovered at around 8 pm, approximately 20 to 30 meters below the highway in the Camp 4 area, following a search by responding police units.

According to police, Cabral had been traveling with her driver earlier in the afternoon when she reportedly asked to stop along Kennon Road and requested to be left there. When the driver later returned and could not locate her, he sought police assistance.

Personnel from the Baguio City Police Office and the Tuba Municipal Police Station conducted a search that led to her discovery near the riverbank. She was found unconscious and unresponsive and was retrieved with the assistance of the Tuba Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the Bureau of Fire Protection.

Authorities said the incident is being treated as an alleged fall. The Benguet Provincial Forensic Unit has been notified to conduct scene-of-the-crime processing.

Police said no foul play has been established at this stage, and the investigation is ongoing.

Cabral resigned from the DPWH last September after she was implicated in alleged anomalous budget insertions that enabled anomalous flood control contracts. Another undersecretary claimed that Cabral, along with the DPWH secretaries she served — Mark Villar and Manuel Bonoan — operated a kickback system in contracts awarded or implemented by the department.

In recent weeks, government investigators and law enforcers had been on the trail of former government officials as well as private contractors who are allegedly involved in overpriced, substandard, or ghost flood control projects amounting to billions of pesos under the Duterte and Marcos administrations, but could go as high as more than P1 trillion in the last 15 years. – Rappler.com