A subpoena was issued by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) against Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral to appear at its hearing on flood control anomalies.

This was confirmed by ICI executive director Brian Keith Hosaka on Thursday. “Yes, I believe there was already a subpoena,” Hosaka said.

Hosaka said the hearing for Cabral would be on 15 December.

Cabral was recently implicated as allegedly involved in supposed budget insertions and kickbacks from flood control projects.

Earlier, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee had ordered Cabral to appear before its inquiry into alleged budget insertions, despite her recent resignation from government service.

Committee chair Sen. Panfilo Lacson announced the issuance of a subpoena Thursday (18 September) after Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon confirmed that he had accepted Cabral’s courtesy resignation on 14 September.

Dizon said Cabral had informed the panel she would no longer attend the hearings because she was no longer in office.

“Even if she is now just a private citizen and no longer part of the DPWH, if the committee will require her to attend, she still must attend. But now, no longer as an official of the DPWH, but as a private citizen,” Dizon said.

Dizon assured senators that the DPWH would push forward with its internal probe. “While former undersecretary Cabral is no longer with the DPWH, this does not in any way stop us from continuing our internal investigations on who should be liable for the clear crimes committed against our people,” he said.

Cabral has been under scrutiny after Lacson revealed in a privilege speech that she allegedly called the staff of Senate President Vicente Sotto III shortly after the May 2025 elections to ask what they wanted inserted in the proposed 2026 national budget. Lacson added that the bigger question is whether other lawmakers were also approached.