Palace: Cabinet links to insertions hearsay

Unless validated

- By ALEXIS ROMERO

Documents related to the flood control mess are mere "hearsay" unless validated by the Department of Public Works and Highways, Malacañang said, after Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste released what he described as DPWH files linking executive officials to the controversy.

Earlier this week, Leviste said the late former DPWH undersecretary Catalina Cabral provided him files listing the proponents of the agency's insertions on Sept. 4. He said the files were given to him after Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon told Cabral to release the documents "in the interest of transparency."

According to Leviste, the files listed project proponents who are lawmakers, private persons and people from the executive branch, "including secretaries and undersecretaries outside DPWH."

Asked to comment on Leviste's revelation, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said the Palace would only respond to documents authenticated by DPWH.

"Other than these, they will all be considered as hearsay or tsismis, which have no probative value," the Palace press officer said in a text message last Wednesday.

Cabral was regarded as an important figure in the probe into substandard and ghost flood mitigation projects that allowed corrupt officials and contractors to earn kickbacks.

Leviste made the disclosure about Cabral’s files two days after the resigned undersecretary fell to her death in a ravine in Tuba, Benguet. Investigations revealed that blunt force trauma caused her death.

Cabral, who resigned from DPWH in September after she was linked to alleged budget insertions, reportedly surveyed the ravine before jumping to her death an hour later.