BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Police are investigating the death of Maria Catalina Cabral, a former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary, who was earlier found unconscious near Bued River along Kennon Road in Tuba, Benguet, on Wednesday night, December 18.

She was later declared dead by Dr. Gian Frances Salinas at 12:03 am Friday, December 19, police said.

The Benguet Police Provincial Office (PPO) said Cabral was discovered at around 8 pm, approximately 20 to 30 meters below the highway in the Camp 5 area of Barangay Camp 4, following a search by responding police units.

Personnel from the Baguio City Police Office and the Tuba Municipal Police Station conducted a search that led to her discovery near the riverbank. She was found unconscious and unresponsive and was retrieved shortly before midnight with the assistance of the Tuba Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the Bureau of Fire Protection.

Authorities said the incident is being treated as an alleged fall that resulted in death. The Benguet Provincial Forensic Unit conducted scene-of-the-crime processing, while the investigation remains ongoing.

Past midnight of Friday, the Ombudsman’s office directed the authorities in Benguet to take custody of and preserve Cabral’s cellphone and other gadgets. These should be “turned over to the investigators at the proper time.”

According to police, Cabral had been traveling with her driver earlier in the afternoon when she reportedly asked to stop along Kennon Road and requested to be left there. When the driver later returned and could not locate her, he sought police assistance.

Police said no foul play has been established at this stage, and the investigation is ongoing.

Cabral resigned from the DPWH last September after she was implicated in alleged anomalous budget insertions that enabled anomalous flood control contracts. Another undersecretary claimed that Cabral, along with the DPWH secretaries she served — Mark Villar and Manuel Bonoan — operated a kickback system in contracts awarded or implemented by the department.

In recent weeks, government investigators and law enforcers had been on the trail of former government officials as well as private contractors who are allegedly involved in overpriced, substandard, or ghost flood control projects amounting to billions of pesos under the Duterte and Marcos administrations, but could go as high as more than P1 trillion in the last 15 years. – with a report from Jairo Bolledo/Rappler.com