MANILA, Philippines – Former Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral was discovered unconscious close to Bued River alongside Kennon Street in Tuba, Benguet, and was later declared lifeless at 12:03 am on December 19.
Cabral resigned from the DPWH final September after she was implicated in alleged anomalous finances insertions that enabled anomalous flood management contracts. One other undersecretary claimed that Cabral, together with the DPWH secretaries she served — Mark Villar and Manuel Bonoan — operated a kickback system in contracts awarded or applied by the division.
On December 18, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. introduced in a video message {that a} native courtroom has issued a warrant of arrest in opposition to embattled contractor Sarah Discaya and others over a P96-million ghost venture in Davao Occidental. Hours later, the Nationwide Bureau of Investigation arrested the embattled contractor.
In the meantime, the bicameral convention committee accepted P243 billion in unprogrammed appropriations for 2026 on December 18. The bicam adopted the Home model, which is greater than thrice bigger than the Senate’s accepted P68.77-billion allocation for the UA. Below the Nationwide Expenditure Program, the Division of Funds and Administration initially proposed P249.9 billion for unprogrammed appropriations.
Catch extra tales in these images from the week that was
Members of the Senate and the Home of Representatives huddle earlier than they convene for the bicameral convention committee assembly on the proposed 2026 Basic Appropriations Act on the Philippine Worldwide Conference Heart in Pasay Metropolis on December 13, 2025. PHOTO FROM SENATE SOCIAL MEDIA UNIT
A woman runs between provides at Wat Por Sovannaram refugee camp, amid clashes between Thailand and Cambodia alongside a disputed border space in Ou Chrov district, Banteay Meanchey Province, Cambodia, on December 13, 2025. PHOTO BY KIM HONG-JI/REUTERS
Parishioners of San Felipe Neri Parish venerate the relics (pericardium, the membrane surrounding and defending the guts) of Saint Carlo Acutis in Mandaluyong Metropolis on December 14, 2025. PHOTO BY RAPPLER
Staff carry a crucifix inside Saint Peter’s Basilica forward of the Mass for the Jubilee of Prisoners on the Vatican on December 14, 2025. PHOTO BY REMO CASILLI/REUTERS
Individuals participate in a half-naked Santa run in Budapest, Hungary, on December 14, 2025. PHOTO BY BERNADETT SZABO/REUTERS
An ‘America research is at stake’ signal is hooked up to a pole on the website of Saturday’s mass taking pictures at Brown College in Windfall, Rhode Island, on December 14, 2025. PHOTO BY MARIA ALEJANDRACARDONA/REUTERS
Philippines’ Jasmine Althea Ramilo exhibits her type throughout the ladies’s particular person rhythmic gymnastics qualification of the Southeast Asian Video games, at Gymnasium 5, Thammasat College Rangsit Campus, Pathum Thani, Thailand, on December 15, 2025. PHOTO BY CHALINEE THIRASUPA/REUTERS
Flowers and a observe studying ‘rip meathead’ are positioned at Rob Reiner’s star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame after the actor-director and political activist and his spouse have been discovered lifeless, in Los Angeles, California, on December 15, 2025. PHOTO BY DANIEL COLE/REUTERS
Tom Kenny reacts subsequent to SpongeBob SquarePants throughout a ceremony to rejoice the discharge of the movie ‘The SpongeBob Film: Seek for SquarePants’, within the forecourt of the TCL Chinese language theatre in Los Angeles, California, on December 16, 2025. PHOTO BY MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS
EJ Obiena of the Philippines clears the pole throughout the males’s pole vault closing of Southeast Asian Video games at Suphachalasai Nationwide Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand, on December 16, 2025. PHOTO BY JEREMY LEE/REUTERS
Grandparents of 10 year-old Matilda, who was killed throughout a mass taking pictures focusing on a Hanukkah celebration on December 14, grieve on the floral memorial to honor the victims of the mass taking pictures at Bondi Seaside, in Sydney, Australia, on December 16, 2025. PHOTO BY JEREMY PIPER/REUTERS
US President Donald Trump participates in a dignified switch of the stays of two Iowa Nationwide Guard members killed in Syria, Sgt. Edgar Torres Tovar and Sgt. William Howard, and Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, who was working as an interpreter in Syria, at Dover Air Pressure Base in Dover, Delaware, on December, 17, 2025. PHOTO BY NATHAN HOWARD/REUTERS
A lifeless sea turtle is displayed on the bottom throughout a protest in opposition to air pollution brought on by chemical emissions from the state-owned Tunisian Chemical Group’s phosphate advanced in Gabes, Tunisia, on December 17, 2025. PHOTO BY KHALED NASRAOUI/REUTERS
A gaggle of scholars put together their entry earlier than the beginning of the standard lantern parade on the tutorial oval on the College of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon Metropolis, on December 17, 2025. PHOTO BY JIRE CARREON/RAPPLER
A protester walks subsequent to burning tyres on a sq. close to the European Parliament as farmers protest in opposition to the EU-Mercosur free-trade deal between the European Union and the South American nations of Mercosur, on the day of a European Union leaders’ summit, in Brussels, Belgium, on December 18, 2025. PHOTO BY YVES HERMAN/REUTERS
Nationwide Bureau of Investigation personnel escort authorities contractor Sarah Discaya upon her arrival at Mactan-Cebu Worldwide Airport on December 19, 2025. Discaya is going through a malversation case involving a P96-million alleged ghost venture in Davao Occidental. PHOTO BY JACQUELINE HERNANDEZ/RAPPLER
Native cops examine the spot the place former DPWH undersecretary Cathy Cabral fell to her dying in Sitio Marammal, Barangay Camp 4, Tuba, Benguet, on December 19, 2025. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Gilas Pilipinas’ France Mae Cabinbin and Janine Pontejos rejoice after successful the gold in Southeast Asian Video games ladies’s 5-on-5 basketball closing at Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 19, 2025. PHOTO BY CHALINEE THIRASUPA/REUTERS
A gaggle of individuals set hearth to the Prothom Alo newspaper workplace in Karwan Bazar, following the dying of Sharif Osman Hadi, a pupil chief who had been receiving therapy in Singapore after being shot within the head, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on December 19, 2025. PHOTO BY MEHEDI HASAN/REUTERS
– with stories from Reuters/Rappler.com
![[Vantage Point] The Senate probe absurdities](https://www.rappler.com/tachyon/2025/10/TL-A-DISMAL-ENDGAME-OCT-4-2025.jpg "[Vantage Point] The Senate probe absurdities")