Maria Catalina “Cathy” Cabral made headlines anew after her tragic death in Benguet a few days before the year ended.

One of the former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretaries tagged in the flood control corruption, Cabral was found unconscious near Bued River along Kennon Road in Tuba, Benguet, on Wednesday night, December 18.

She was later pronounced dead by the attending doctor past midnight of December 19, the police said. Philippine authorities said this case might be an alleged fall that resulted in Cabral’s death.

Who is Cabral and why is she an important character in this multi-billion infrastructure corruption scandal hounding the government?

Seasoned civil engineer

Cabral is a registered civil engineer with an impressive academic background.

• Before her resignation from the DPWH in September, she was its Undersecretary for Planning and Public-Private Partnership (PPP). She oversaw the agency’s infrastructure planning and programming.
• Cabral was the first female president of the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, and later served as the national president of the Road Engineering Association of the Philippines.
• She held three master’s degrees, which included business and strategic economics. She also had three doctorate degrees: business management, public administration, and urban and regional planning. 
• Apart from these, Cabral also enrolled herself in executive programs and certificates under international institutions, like Wharton and Harvard Kennedy School.
• She was also a professional chair awardee for science and technology of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
• Cabral was a commissioned officer in the Reserve Force of the Armed Forces of the Philippine. She held the rank of a lieutenant colonel in the Philippine Army.
• She had a number of recognition under her belt, including the Most Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of the East, Excellence Award from the Philippine Federation of Professional Association, and Outstanding Professional of the Year in Civil Engineering conferred by the Professional Regulation Commission.
  

On insertions

Senate blue ribbon chairperson Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson was the first to implicat Cabral in infrastructure corruption.

• Lacson, in September, said that one “Undersecretary Cabral” allegedly reached out to Senate President Tito Sotto’s office after the May 2025 elections to ask the senator what he wanted to insert in the proposed 2026 budget.
• Per the bombshell testimony of her fellow former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, Cabral was the alleged main operator of the kickback system in the agency, along with former public works chiefs Mark Villar (Duterte administration) and Manuel Bonoan (Marcos administration).
• Bernardo, in his November testimony, said Cabral had the power at the DPWH level to remove, include, add, or deduct insertions in the National Expenditure Program or NEP, the proposed national budget.
• DPWH district engineers would submit a list of projects to DPWH officials, then Cabral — either on behalf of Villar or Bonoan or by herself — “shall facilitate and ensure the inclusion of these projects in the NEP” or ensure that these projects would be get funding.

‘Allocables’

Cabral is also in the center of the allocable budget controversy.

• After setting aside a department’s mandatory expenses, like salary and payment for debt, the remaining funds become “allocable” for projects.
• In 2023, Cabral designed an algorithmic formula so that each district would have a set allocable budget from the DPWH. The formula was known only to her, said Bernardo.
• The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism has found that the highest allocables went to Ilocos Norte 1st District Representative Sandro Marcos, the President’s son, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez, the President’s first cousin.
• Bernardo also alleged that both Cabral and Bonoan would reserve some of the DPWH’s allocable budget for their preferred projects.

– with reports from Patrick Cruz/Rappler.com