In the numerous Senate proceedings where then-Department of Public Works and Highways Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral appeared, not once was she asked about “allocables,” the portions of the DPWH budget supposedly set aside for pork barrel projects.

It was only after her tragic death did the allocables scheme she was said to have devised become the focus of scrutiny. It turned out that nearly the entire upper chamber is compromised in terms of insertions in the DPWH budget.

Under Cabral’s allocable formula, pre-determined discretionary amounts were allocated to senators and representatives for roads, flood control projects, bridges and streetlights.

These pet projects were embedded in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), or the President’s budget that is submitted to Congress.

The lawmakers were informed of their district’s “ceiling” amount for insertions early in the process and they then submitted project proposals, referred to as wish lists, to the DPWH.

Allocations were calculated using an opaque “BBM Parametric Formula” (BBM standing for “Baselined, Balanced and Managed), introduced in 2023 under the Marcos administration.

Factors included historical regional minimums, population per capita, the infrastructure required, land area density, poverty rates, climate vulnerability and absorptive capacity, or the ability of the recipient district to implement projects.

Cabral was the gatekeeper of the details. In the 2025 NEP, allocables totaled P400 to P402 billion of the DPWH budget, or at least P150 million per district and partylist representative. Districts represented by or allied with the administration received billions more in allotments.

Allocables allow the pre-enactment inclusion of project funds, which skirts the 2013 Supreme Court ruling striking down the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel and barring the post-enactment inclusion of projects.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise that almost everyone high up in government had some interest in DPWH projects,” Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste said of the allocables list that Cabral entrusted to him.

“And so many people would not want this list to come out,” he added.

Leviste said that when the list was handed to him, Cabral was under pressure “to testify a certain way. And perhaps that was not an easy thing for someone to have to deal with.”

Thus, it came naturally that legislators largely avoided directly questioning Cabral about the “allocables” system, including its parametric formula and how allocations were determined, during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and House hearings, for their self-preservation.

Probing her on the details risked exposing their own or their colleagues’ participation, including that of high-profile figures whose districts received disproportionately large shares, reportedly billions for certain districts linked to presidential relatives.

The questions to Cabral focused on specific flood control project irregularities, including overpricing, ghost projects and allocations during the Covid-19 period, such as confirming billions in allocations for particular districts.

Former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, in his November 2025 Senate testimony and in his affidavits, provided detailed accounts of Cabral’s central role in controlling and manipulating allocables.

By then, Cabral was no longer appearing at hearings and legislators did not ask her to verify Bernardo’s account.

Recent revelations highlighted how normalized the insertions had become across Congress and the Senate.