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December 21, 2025 | 5:44pm
Rep. Leandro Leviste (Batangas, 1st District) holds a press conference on Monday, Aug. 26, 2025 after filing criminal cases against the district engineer who attempted to bribe him.
Lingkod Legarda Leviste via Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — Rep. Leandro Leviste revealed on Sunday, December 21, that he has documents detailing the proponents of multi-billion-peso budget “insertions” within the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) nationwide, which were provided by the late Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, December 21, Leviste said Cabral was the source of the files, which he claimed were handed to him on September 4, 2024, following a direct order from DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon in the interest of transparency.
According to Leviste, he showed the files to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure on November 18 and 19 and to the Office of the Ombudsman on November 26.
“Since then, many have asked for the late USec Cabral’s files to be released to the public. I will await the DPWH’s position on this, and I will release them if Sec Vince tells me to,” Leviste said.
“I can also release the insertions of proponents to the extent that I am allowed in Congress as I did on November 19,” he added.
According to Leviste, the files are not limited to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The list allegedly includes high-ranking officials from the executive branch — including secretaries and undersecretaries from departments outside the DPWH — as well as private individuals.
“The release of the files would have wide-ranging consequences,” Leviste said.
“They list proponents of flood control and other DPWH projects from the whole government. So as not to compromise my work in Congress, I would prefer that DPWH be the one to decide on releasing these files to the public,” he added.
Leviste’s statement was released following the death of Cabral on December 19, after she fell into a ravine in Benguet.
It could be recalled that former Public Works Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo accused Cabral of being a key figure in the agency’s financial planning.
In his Senate testimony and sworn statements, Bernardo said that as head of planning, Cabral managed the allocation of infrastructure funds, specifically for flood control projects.
After she was implicated in the flood control controversy, Cabral resigned from the DPWH on September 16.
