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Mark Ernest Villeza - The Philippine Star
December 28, 2025 | 12:00am
Former DPWH Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral attends the House Infra Committee's hearing into anomalous flood control projects on Sept. 9, 2025.
House of Representatives / Released
MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has obtained new dashcam footage that it described as “very substantial” in the ongoing probe into the death of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral.
NBI spokesman Palmer Mallari said the footage showed Cabral sitting on the concrete pavement between safety barriers along Kennon Road on Dec. 18, with no companion and no vehicle in sight.
“We found very, very substantial dashcam footage showing Undersecretary Cabral sitting at the lowest portion,” Mallari noted.
“The previous footage and photos made it appear she was sightseeing, sitting on a barrier or standing with her vehicle. In this new footage, there was no other person and no car. That proves, among others, that she had no companion at the time she was last seen alive,” he said.
Mallari said the footage was examined frame by frame and included coordinates, date and time data.
“The footage suggests that she was already below. When our agents visited the coordinates indicated in the video, it matched the exact location where her body was later recovered,” he explained.
He added that Cabral’s position in the video appeared consistent with someone about to descend or slide down the ravine.
“The messages after the date and time shown in the footage indicate that she was no longer there. That must have been the last time she was seen alive,” Mallari said.
The NBI said the body recovered in a ravine along Kennon Road was identified as Cabral’s through fingerprint matching using the bureau’s clearance section database.
Probers also examined anti-anxiety medication and two bladed weapons found among Cabral’s belongings.
“The product literature of these medicines suggests they are taken by people suffering from sleep and anxiety disorders. Prolonged use can develop suicidal thoughts or tendencies,” Mallari said. “The bag was expensive, but it contained two knives.”
No authentication
Contrary to Batangas 1st district Rep. Leandro Leviste, DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon did not authenticate any document from the so-called Cabral files.
Dizon made the clarification after Leviste urged Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro to verify the Cabral files with the DPWH chief.
“For the record, I haven’t authenticated (any document) from the congressman because I haven’t seen the documents he mentioned, so how can I authenticate that?” Dizon told GMA News’ “24 Oras” on Friday.
Leviste said he obtained from Cabral flood-control project files which contained “allocables” for lawmakers under the P6.326-trillion General Appropriations Act that was prepared in 2024 during the 19th Congress.
Based on the list’s markings, Leviste got the documents from Cabral last September.
Based on his conversation with Cabral, Dizon said Leviste forcibly took the documents from the late undersecretary’s office. — Emmanuel Tupas, Jose Rodel Clapano
