FACT CHECK: Ex-DPWH undersecretary Cabral is dead, not spotted abroad

Claim:  Former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Maria Catalina “Cathy” Cabral is still alive and is currently abroad.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: As of this writing, the YouTube video making the claim has 103,000 views, 6,300 likes, and 756 comments. It was uploaded on a YouTube channel with 498,000 subscribers.

The text in the video’s thumbnail states: “Viral video spotted Cabral. Nasa ibang bansa, buhay pa.”

(A viral video spotted Cabral. She is in another country and still alive.)

The video surfaced on December 28, a little over a week after authorities declared Cabral dead in Benguet following an alleged fall. A former DPWH undersecretary who resigned in September 2025, Cabral had been implicated in an alleged multi-billion-peso kickback system in the agency.

The facts: Cabral is dead, contrary to circulating claims that she is alive and currently abroad. The video offers only speculation and provides no evidence for its claim.

On December 18, 2025, Cabral was found unconscious along the Bued River in Tuba, Benguet, about 20 to 30 meters below the highway. First responders from the Tuba Police, local disaster risk reduction office, and the Bureau of Fire Protection retrieved her body shortly after midnight, and an attending physician pronounced her dead at 12:03 am on December 19, 2025.

An autopsy conducted by the Philippine National Police on December 20, 2025, determined that Cabral died from blunt traumatic injuries consistent with a fall. The findings were confirmed by Interior Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla, who said there was no indication of foul play at the time.

Although authorities are still investigating the full sequence of events leading to her death, including what happened along Kennon Road, official reports and forensic examinations confirm that Cabral died in the Philippines in December 2025. (READ: What happened before and after Cathy Cabral’s death in Benguet)

Infrastructure corruption: Cabral was a former DPWH undersecretary who became a key figure in a multi-billion-peso corruption controversy linked to flood control projects. Before her resignation in September 2025, Cabral served as Undersecretary for Planning and Public-Private Partnership, overseeing the agency’s infrastructure planning and budget programming.

Her name surfaced during Senate hearings after former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo identified her as the alleged main operator of the agency’s kickback system, alongside former public works chiefs Mark Villar (Duterte administration) and Manuel Bonoan (Marcos administration). Bernardo claimed that Cabral had the authority to add, remove, or modify projects in the proposed national budget and ensure their inclusion in the National Expenditure Program. (READ: Revisiting Cathy Cabral’s alleged role in DPWH corruption)

Cabral was also alleged to have designed an internal algorithmic formula — known only to her — that determined each district’s “allocable” budget for DPWH projects. A report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism found that some of the highest allocations went to districts represented by politically influential figures, including relatives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – Marjuice Destinado/Rappler.com

Marjuice Destinado is a senior political science student at Cebu Normal University (CNU) and an alumna of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship of Rappler for 2025.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.