Senate Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" Lacson revealed on Saturday, 27 December, that documents gathered from the camp of the late Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Catalian Cabral showed at least five Cabinet members benefited from kickbacks.

Citing the files, Lacson said at least five Cabinet members and even some undersecretaries "had allocables and/or non-allocables" amounting to billions of pesos in the 2025 budget.

"Allocables" are funds that the DPWH provides to congressional districts. These funds represent a new form of pork, because they are "discretionary, politically motivated" and directed toward "politically determined projects that crowd out more equitable and accountable public spending," according to the People's Budget Coalition.

Futher, Lacson said these include one "ES" who had P8.3 billion, and ex-DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan, whose allocables for 2025 alone amounted to at least P30.5 billion.

"For Bonoan, I saw his allocables include P5 billion, plus three more batches totaling P25.5 billion, so P30.5 billion in all. What is his right to the allocables? Also, I saw the other Cabinet secretaries getting P2 billion each. Why?" he added.

The senator said there were also billions for the House leadership and party-list groups.

He added that at least one Cabinet member aside from Bonoan benefited from kickbacks, as former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo indicated he had delivered money to that Cabinet member.

"Aside from Bonoan, at least one more Cabinet member received kickbacks from Bernardo," he said, adding that the Cabinet member may be invited to the Blue Ribbon hearing once relevant documents are authenticated.

Lacson said the Cabinet secretaries concerned may be invited to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's probe into anomalous flood control projects once the relevant documents are authenticated, including Special Allotment Release Orders dated 27 December 2024.

Documents received by Lacson from Cabral's camp showed the special allotment release orders (SAROs) involved the release of P50 billion in unprogrammed appropriations, of which P30 billion was for flood control projects; many of them were validated to be ghost projects.

Lacson noted that while Cabral reached out to him shortly after she was implicated by Bernardo in the Blue Ribbon Committee's 14 November hearing and expressed willingness to tell all, but died earlier this month, they can have Department of Budget and Management officer-in-charge Rolando Toledo or the DPWH authenticate the documents.

Cabral had indicated she was to testify on the SAROs before she died, Lacson noted.

"The information I got is based on documents given to me by Cabral's lawyer and from documents I got from the DPWH. We can have these documents authenticated," he added.

"Why should Cabinet secretaries get allocables? I thought the allocables were for lawmakers to request projects for their districts, which, to me, is still unacceptable because the National Expenditure Program is the exclusive domain of the executive department," he said.

Cabral allegedly fell into a ravine along Kennon Road in Baguio on 18 December.