Former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan told the Senate that the flood control data submitted to Malacañang had come directly from the office of the late Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral, placing the controversial “Cabral files” squarely at the center of the information reaching the President.

Bonoan made the admission during the resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on 19 January as lawmakers pressed him on allegedly erroneous grid coordinates that triggered findings of hundreds of supposed ghost flood control projects nationwide.

“Of course, I relied on the data that was generated by our people in the department, especially the office of the late Undersecretary Cathy Cabral,” Bonoan told the senators, adding that the submission to the Office of the President was drawn from Cabral’s consolidated records, including data from the Multi-Year Planning and Scheduling (MYPS) system.

He said time constraints compelled him to instruct Cabral to collate the information required by Malacañang, noting that the planning records included projects already completed under the MYPS.

Lacson flags ‘grossly inaccurate’ data

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, chair of the committee, said the submission of wrong grid coordinates created “grossly inaccurate data,” resulting in the discovery of some 421 ghost flood control projects.

Bonoan rejected the claims of deliberate wrongdoing, describing the figure as “mind-boggling” and questioning why such a large number of non-existent projects was not flagged earlier by the Commission on Audit (CoA). He said the only ghost projects he personally reported to the President were those found in the Bulacan First Engineering District, which he believed to be an isolated case.

Leaked files, disputed access

The hearings also revived the controversy over the so-called Cabral files after DPWH officials alleged that Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste forcibly obtained soft copies of the documents. DPWH Undersecretary Ricardo Bernabe III testified that while Cabral provided Leviste with a hard copy of district-level allocations in September 2025, reports later said that the soft copies were forcibly taken — a claim Leviste denied.

Bernabe said the computer involved is now in the custody of the Office of the Ombudsman and is being subjected to a forensic examination. Leviste, for his part, said neither Cabral nor her legal counsel ever claimed the files were taken by force, citing CCTV footage presented by the DPWH.

Senator Rodante Marcoleta questioned Leviste’s qualification to testify on the documents, arguing that the lawmaker had no role in their preparation or consolidation.

Numbers trimmed, doubts remain

DPWH Undersecretary Arthur Bisnar told the committee that the list of 421 ghost projects was trimmed to 416 after duplicates were expunged. Of these, 337 were tagged as non-existent following field inspections by DPWH engineers and other agencies, many due to incorrect coordinates.

Lacson said that the submission of the wrong coordinates to Malacañang could have caused the number of ghost projects to “balloon.”