Two Events, Many Questions

In analyzing these events, I posed some questions. In the case of the death of Usec Cabral, there is one question that keeps popping up. What was the motive of the Usec in wanting to stay in that roadside part of Kennon Road, a place about 20 kilometers from Baguio City? And she was in that place twice, at around 10 am and 3 pm. In the morning, she and her driver were at the same place but were told by the police to leave because their vehicle posed a traffic hazard.

Why come back to the same no-parking spot five hours later only to ask her driver to leave her? There is much speculation right now because the full-blown investigation is just beginning.

If she were thinking of committing suicide, why choose that place and time? Many vehicles pass through the place, especially during the day. Most suicides are committed where no one will be watching. It is a private decision of the person committing suicide.

Saying that this was a suicide case makes it easy to conclude the investigation. But the other angle, that of murder committed by a group that wanted her dead, is plausible, and should be pursued. In a conspiracy, the members act in ways that give them control over the place and people, so whoever planned this, if any, was in control of the area.

Why place a burden on herself when, as shown by the courage of Engr. Henry Alcantara and Engr. Brice Hernandez, when she could have told her true story in an affidavit like her co-workers (and returned the money she got)?

If this is what happened, then the perpetrators chose the site because there are no cctv cameras there. In Baguio City, cameras are everywhere, and the murder would have been easy to see on the cctv coverage. The place where she alighted from her car was a convenient pickup point, especially if the other party was coming from Baguio City.

A selfie taken by the driver at the parking spot also surfaced online. The question is: why take the picture at an angle that shows Usec Cabral? Is this a way to inform the perpetrators that they are already at the meeting place? (The cellphone of the driver should also be examined by the PNP.)

The driver left former Usec Cabral, saying he was told to go and just come back. Did he not notice this to be a strange request?

In this issue of corruption at the DPWH, the money that changed hands runs into billions of pesos, making it easy to use part of that for a scheme so brazen as this possible murder of a former high government official.

Since she was not shot, no forensic examination is needed. And the PNP will conclude the investigation of the incident. Case closed. Not so fast. Questions are begging to be answered.

On the passage of the General Appropriations Act. There is just one question that bothers me: Why did Secretary Vince Dizon change his position and seek the restoration of the deleted DPWH budget by adding about 50 billion pesos to the Senate proposal? In the process, he cited the use of a reduction based on the lower cost of materials authorized for the computation of project cost. (The reduction was an admission that in all these years, the DPWH always bloated the project cost, to promote corruption)

Sec. Dizon pointed out that the reduction in project costs should have been made on a per-project basis due to differences in the distance from suppliers to project sites. But this means the DPWH should have revised its budget proposal to reflect the actual cost of construction materials, rather than padded costs.

Sec. Dizon blamed the Senators for failing to apply the reduced cost properly. That did not sit well with the Senators; he apologized the following day.

It is easy to see that he was under tremendous pressure from members of Congress to make such a drastic about-face from a position he had so strongly advocated a few months earlier.

Two events, many questions. We should know the answers.

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