DILG chief, PNP: Cabral’s death suggests suicide
BOCAUE, BULACAN—Evidence gathered so far by police investigators points to the possibility that resigned Public Works Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral had killed herself when she fell off a cliffside along Kennon Road in Tuba, Benguet, on Dec. 18.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday directed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to produce all electronic gadgets issued to Cabral, citing the need to ensure the data in these devices had not been tampered with or altered.
Acting Philippine National Police chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. told reporters here on Monday that “pieces of evidence we have gathered show that there is suicide.” But he also emphasized that the police investigation is still ongoing.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla had the same conclusion. “All signs point to suicide,” he said in an interview with ANC. “All signs [show] that her intent is very clear.”
Timeline
Cabral was found dead at a bottom of a ravine at Purok Maramal, Sitio Camp 5 in Barangay Camp 4, Tuba. She fell from a height of 30 meters—comparable to a 10-story building.
Remulla cited dashcam footage which showed Cabral sitting on the ledge sometime 10 a.m. on Dec. 18. It was also around that time when police saw her car and instructed her driver to move the vehicle out of the area.
Cabral returned to the Ion Hotel in Baguio City at 11 a.m., but asked her driver Ricardo Hernandez a few hours later to bring her back to their stop on Kennon Road.
She then asked Hernandez to leave her. He decided to gas up at a nearby fueling station.
When Hernandez returned, Cabral was no longer where he left her. Neither was she at the hotel when he returned there around 4 p.m.
After about an hour, Hernandez went to the police, who found Cabral’s body at the ravine later that night.
No signs of foul play
In a statement, Remulla said it appeared Cabral chose that spot where she died. “The seriousness of the intent is measured by the lethality of the means,” he said, explaining the possibility of her suicide.
“There is no way [she] could have survived that fall,” he said. Authorities said Cabral died due to “blunt traumatic injury consistent with [the] fall.”
Autopsy also showed there were no signs of foul play in Cabral’s death—no signs of physical struggle in her car, no skin cells found in her fingernails, no bullet wounds in her body.
As for her possible motive in killing herself, Remulla said he believed she was pressured by other persons involved in the corruption scandal hounding the DPWH.
“I cannot speak for her. But for my supposition, I think it’s the end of the line,” Remulla said.
Driver, husband
Remulla also said Hernandez, who was initially considered a person of interest, appeared to be in the clear after undergoing police questioning.
He said police had also “analyzed” Hernandez’s cell phone after he had taken a selfie that went viral on social media.
The photo also showed Cabral—wearing a light-colored shirt and denim pants—sitting on the ledge behind Hernandez and her parked car and appearing to look down at the bottom of the cliffside.
But Remulla explained the selfie was intended to show Cabral who, according to Hernandez, had just told him some good news.
“[During their] conversation going to Baguio, she promised to help him build a house, so he was very happy,” Remulla said.
He noted, however, that Cabral’s husband Cesar had a “kind of strange” behavior.
Cesar Cabral, who traveled to Baguio City after his wife had been identified, had refused to accommodate an autopsy, already concluding that her death was an accident.
“He was very straight to the point, he was not crying,” Remulla said. “It raises a lot of red flags for us.”
Cesar could not immediately be reached while his lawyer Mae Divinagracia had yet to respond, as of this writing, to a request for comment.
‘Space to grieve’
In a message to reporters, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said “I’d rather give first the late Usec Cabral’s family some space to grieve and mourn their loss.”
Lacson also said any disclosure of whatever files Cabral might have could be done at the proper time and venue.
In his statement on Monday, Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said his agency had issued a subpoena duces tecum directing the DPWH to turn in all devices issued to Cabral.
“Upon turnover, these devices will be subjected to forensic examination by a law enforcement agency to determine whether any data was altered, deleted, or tampered with after the flood control scandal was first made public,” Clavano said.
The DPWH, in its statement, said it “will be immediately turning over all data storage devices, with the corresponding authority to submit the same to the PNP-ACG (Anti-Cybercrime Group) for forensics examination, as well as all documents, records, and files under the office of the late former Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral.”
This is “in full compliance with the subpoena duces tecum issued by the Office of the Ombudsman,” the department said. —WITH REPORTS FROM GABRIEL PABICO LALU AND TINA G. SANTOS
