THE ANATOMY OF A BUDGETARY INSURRECTION

I. Prologue: The Year-End Blitz

As the calendar turns to December 31, 2025, the Philippine government is locked in a frantic race against time. The objective: the ratification of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill. But beneath the surface of legislative duty lies a darker narrative of “DPWH Leaks,” “Unprogrammed Funds,” and a digital ledger that has become the most dangerous document in the republic.

The “Cabral Files,” named after the late Undersecretary Maria Catalina “Kathy” Cabral, have transformed from a collection of spreadsheets into a de@dly political fuse. The standoff is no longer just about where the money went; it is about the authenticity of the evidence and the lengths to which the state will go to k*ll the credibility of those who hold it.

II. The “Forcible Taking” Narrative: A Script in Crisis

The Malacañang Palace, through PCO Undersecretary Claire Castro, has launched a aggressive counter-narrative against Batangas First District Representative Leandro Leviste. The administration’s script suggests that the “Cabral Files” were not handed over in the spirit of transparency, but were “forcibly taken” from the late Undersecretary.

According to this version of events, Leviste allegedly snatched the files from Cabral’s desk, leading to a physical struggle that left the high-ranking official with “paper cut” wounds. The administration has even circulated photos of Cabral’s bandaged hands as forensic proof of this “assault.” However, this script has faced immediate skepticism from the public and digital experts. If the documents were “forcibly taken” in a high-security government office, why was no security intervention recorded? Why was Leviste allowed to remain in the office for an hour to utilize the agency’s own photocopy machine?

The irony is profound: by claiming the documents were “stolen” from Cabral’s desk, the administration has inadvertently admitted that the documents are real. A person does not “forcibly take” fake papers; they take the truth that is being hidden. The “Paper Cut” defense, intended to paint Leviste as a villain, has instead provided the ultimate “Authentication” of the Cabral Files.

III. The Magalong Confirmation: The Parallel Ledger

The Palace’s claim that the files are “not authenticated” faced another massive roadblock this week. Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, a former special advisor to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), revealed that he holds a copy of the exact same files.

Magalong stated that he obtained his copy during the second or third week of September 2025. He recounted a chilling moment during an ICI hearing where he confronted Kathy Cabral with the numbers from the ledger. According to Magalong, Cabral became visibly “panicked” (nataranta), began trembling, and suffered a sudden fit of coughing. She reportedly asked for water and struggled to explain the discrepancies in the numbers.

Most importantly, Magalong confirmed that he provided a copy of these files to DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon and other commissioners months ago. This directly contradicts Secretary Dizon’s public stance that he has “never seen” the files Leviste is referencing. The forensic trail now shows that the “Architect’s” secrets were known by the top leadership of the DPWH long before they were leaked to the media, suggesting a massive institutional cover-up.

IV. The PHP 2 Million Bonus and the MOOE Mystery

Rep. Leandro Leviste has further escalated the conflict by alleging that congressmen were promised a “PHP 2 million bonus” to ensure the rapid ratification of the 2026 budget. This allegation was met with a “vehement denial” from House Committee on Appropriations Chairperson Mikaela Suansing. Suansing dismissed the claim as “entirely false,” maintaining that the House leadership never offers bribes.

However, the debate shifted to a more technical and opaque area of government funding: the MOOE (Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses). While a congressman’s official salary is roughly PHP 300,000 per month under the Salary Standardization Law, Leviste claims that each office receives over PHP 1 million monthly in operating allowances.

When questioned about this, Rep. Suansing admitted that “Congressional offices have MOOEs to operate,” but refused to confirm if the amount reached the million-peso mark. For the public, this “allowance” system is viewed as a “legalized kickback”—a way to funnel taxpayer money to politicians under the guise of “office expenses” while avoiding the scrutiny of the salary cap. The standoff between the “PHP 2 million bribe” and the “PHP 1 million MOOE” has become a symbol of the budgetary rot that the Cabral Files were meant to expose.

V. “Mahiya Naman Kayo”: Robin Padilla’s Constitutional Challenge

Amidst the infighting, Senator Robin Padilla has introduced a panukalang batas (proposed law) titled the “Mahiya Naman Kayo” Bill. Padilla’s proposal is radical: a total ban on “Individual Amendments” by legislators. He argues that the system of allowing congressmen and senators to insert their own “wish list” projects into the budget is the primary driver of the nation’s corruption.

Padilla’s logic is psychological as much as it is legal. He suggests that if you remove the ability to secure “kickbacks” and “insertions,” many politicians would lose the incentive to run for office. He has even gone as far as suggesting that both the House and the Senate should be closed in favor of a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) to rewrite the base laws of the land.

“We are paid to make laws, not to point fingers or host talk shows,” Padilla stated, expressing frustration over the “Flood Control drama” that has consumed the year without leading to a single major arrest of a “Big Fish.” His bill serves as a moral indictment of a system where five senators—including Bongo, Dela Rosa, and Marcoleta—voted “No” on the budget rush, while the majority “hayok na hayok” (starving) for the funds pushed for an overnight ratification.

VI. The “Unprogrammed” Vault: The 2026 Budget Loophole

The investigation into the 2026 budget has revealed a recurring forensic anomaly: Unprogrammed Funds. These are billions of pesos that are not allocated to specific projects during the initial budget creation but are kept as a “floating reserve” that the executive branch can release at its discretion.

Critics, including the “Maisog” movement, argue that these unprogrammed funds are the “Safe Vault” for the 2028 election cycle. There are growing concerns that the PHP 60 billion debt owed to PhilHealth and other social services will remain unpaid while these “Unprogrammed” billions are funneled into projects linked to the “Proponents” named in the Cabral Files. The rush to pass the budget “overnight” is seen as a tactical move to ensure these loopholes are locked in before the NBI or the Ombudsman can fully process the data from the late Undersecretary’s laptop.

VII. The Leviste Standoff and the Future of the Files

As of late December 2025, Leandro Leviste remains the primary target of the administration’s legal machinery. The effort to investigate how he got the files, rather than what is in the files, is seen by legal analysts as a “Diversionary Script.” By focusing on the “forcible taking” and the “paper cuts,” the government is attempting to k*ll the evidentiary value of the documents.

However, under Philippine law, budget records and project lists are public documents. There is no law that classifies the DPWH “Budget Programming” as a military secret or an intelligence file. Leviste’s defense is simple: the public has a right to know where their money goes. If the files show a “miraculous” inflation of a project from PHP 3,000 to PHP 100 million, the method of how the paper was obtained is secondary to the crime recorded on the paper itself.

VIII. Conclusion: The Standoff of the Final List

The Philippines enters 2026 in a state of forensic and political suspension. The “Architect” of the system, Kathy Cabral, is d@ad, but her files have created a parallel government of their own. Whether the truth is found in the “Mahiya Naman Kayo” bill, the “Teves Jail Logs,” or the “Leviste Ledger,” the result is the same: the system is being audited by its own leaks.

The standoff between the “Palace Script” and the “Whistleblower’s Receipt” is reaching its breaking point. As the public becomes increasingly cynical of the “Merry Christmas in jail” promise, the only remaining hope is that the names on the “Cabral List” will eventually face a court of law that cannot be silnced by a “lack of a calendar” or a “paper cut.” The klling of transparency may be the current strategy, but in the age of digital forensic backups, the truth is a ghost that no administration can truly k*ll.