DUMAGUETE CITY — Negros Oriental’s 2nd congressional district received the largest fiscal year 2025 Department of Public Works and Highways budget among all 11 districts of the Negros Island Region, according to the so-called Cabral file — the leaked DPWH budget summary that has returned to the spotlight after former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan agreed to turn state witness in the flood control cases.
The document, a “By DEO/LD Summary” of the FY 2025 DPWH budget dated January 20, 2025, shows the 2nd district with a total budget of ₱4.24 billion — ₱1.86 billion in “allocable” funds and ₱2.38 billion in “outside allocable” — the highest in NIR and the biggest of Negros Oriental’s three districts.
Bonoan’s turn revives the files
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced on June 29 that his office had secured a signed cooperation agreement with Bonoan and filed motions before the Sandiganbayan to discharge the former secretary as an accused so he can testify for the prosecution. Bonoan faces a non-bailable ₱573-million plunder charge alongside Senator Jinggoy Estrada over alleged kickbacks from flood control projects.
The development prompted Batangas 1st District Representative Leandro Leviste — who released the files on Christmas Eve following the death of DPWH Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral — to renew his call for a full congressional investigation into how the 2025 DPWH budget swelled past ₱1 trillion.
Leviste noted that when Bonoan faced the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on January 19, the former secretary confirmed the documents came from the DPWH, describing them as “a consolidation of the allocables, the computed allocables per district.” DPWH Undersecretary Ricardo Bernabe III also confirmed at that hearing the authenticity of the list of allocations per congressional district.
“Hindi ibig sabihin ng pagkakaroon ng budget ay may anomalya, pero kung wala namang anomalya, bakit itinatago ang impormasyong ito?” Leviste said in his post, pointing out that district representatives are not necessarily the proponents of their district’s entire budget. The 253 districts’ combined allocable stood at ₱401.3 billion, ballooning to over ₱1 trillion with outside-allocable items.
The Negros Oriental numbers
Per the file, the province’s three districts received a combined ₱9.98 billion — about 37.7 percent of the entire NIR total of ₱26.47 billion:
- 2nd District (then represented by Manuel “Chiquiting” Sagarbarria): ₱1.86B allocable, ₱2.38B outside allocable, ₱4.24B total — 1st in NIR and roughly 16 percent of the region’s entire budget.
- 3rd District (listed under Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr.): ₱1.74B allocable, ₱1.59B outside allocable, ₱3.32B total — 2nd in NIR. Notably, of its ₱1.48 billion in new GAA items, ₱1.41 billion was Congress-initiated against only ₱65 million DPWH-initiated.
- 1st District (Jocelyn “Josy” Limkaichong): ₱1.54B allocable, ₱873M outside allocable, ₱2.41B total — 6th in NIR.
Nationally, the 2nd district’s total placed it above the roughly ₱4-billion-per-district average Leviste cited, ranking among the top 90 of the 253 districts listed.
The caretaker question
The file lists Teves as the 3rd district’s representative, but Teves had been expelled from the House in August 2023 over his alleged role in the assassination of Governor Roel Degamo. Then-Speaker Martin Romualdez served as the district’s legislative caretaker throughout the FY 2025 budget cycle, until Janice Degamo won the seat in May 2025. Romualdez himself now faces charges in connection with the budget insertion and flood control cases.
The 2nd district’s FY 2025 allocations, meanwhile, were crafted while the House appropriations committee was chaired by then Ako Bicol Representative Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co — now a declared fugitive who was arrested in Prague in April, left Czech custody weeks later, and is reportedly seeking asylum in France. The district’s previous representative, Manuel “Chiquiting” Sagarbarria, sits as a vice chairperson of the appropriations committee in the 19th Congress.
The Ombudsman is conducting a digital forensic examination of Cabral’s computer and files, which the DPWH surrendered in December. As of this writing, no congressional hearing has been convened specifically to trace where each district’s FY 2025 allocations went.
