Photo credit: DPWH

Death should be mourned, but it should not be allowed to silence questions that demand answers.

Former DPWH Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral’s passing highlights a recurring problem: when those in public office face scandal, the public often waits in vain for truth, while silence protects the system rather than the people. Accountability cannot be optional.

Cabral was not an ordinary private citizen whose passing, while deeply mourned, carried no broader consequence.

She was a senior public official whose name had surfaced in controversies involving hundreds of billions of public funds.

These were funds intended for flood control and other infrastructure meant to protect lives and livelihoods. These were funds drawn from taxpayers who are now told, once again, that the story effectively ends here.

One death does not prove conspiracy. Suggesting otherwise would be irresponsible.

What cannot be ignored is how frequently major scandals in this country lose momentum not through resolution but through exhaustion.

Files stall. Hearings fade. Public attention drifts. The expectation quietly resets from accountability to acceptance.

Flood control offers a useful metaphor. When drainage systems are clogged and water has nowhere to go, pressure builds invisibly beneath the surface.

The flood does not disappear. It merely waits for the weakest point. When it finally breaks through, damage is concentrated and often catastrophic.

Accountability works the same way.

When questions are blocked and answers delayed, responsibility does not vanish. It accumulates until it finds someone or something to absorb the force.

We are often told not to speculate. That is fair. Speculation thrives only when facts are scarce and trust is thin.

Transparent investigations deprive rumor of oxygen. Yet transparency is precisely what tends to evaporate at moments like this. Investigations are described as ongoing.

Timelines remain undefined. The public is offered reassurance rather than results.

What follows is not closure. It is quiet.
This is also the point when a more uncomfortable question begins to surface.

Will Cabral’s death be treated as an isolated tragedy, or will it quietly become the endpoint of a much larger inquiry?

Experience suggests that when controversies grow unwieldy, attention narrows instead of deepening. Responsibility seeks the smallest possible footprint. Silence becomes convenient.

Those still involved would do well to understand how this pattern usually ends. In scandals of this scale, silence does not distribute risk.

Silence concentrates it. Institutions move to protect themselves. Narratives simplify. Accountability looks for whoever remains available when the noise subsides. Those who speak early are remembered as witnesses.

Those who wait may see consequences fall unevenly. Truth, at this stage, is not moral heroism. Truth is self preservation.

It is the duty of the government and its institutions to ensure that those who come forward with information are protected.

Whistleblowers and witnesses should feel safe to speak, knowing that the law and proper procedures guard them against retaliation.

When protection is credible, truth becomes the safest course of action. When protection is weak or absent, silence becomes tempting and the story is left incomplete and justice delayed.

We call on authorities to make it clear: speaking out is not only a moral obligation, it is the most secure path toward accountability.

This is not a call for accusation.

It is a reminder of how accountability actually works when it finally arrives late and impatient.

Compassion for the dead does not require abandoning responsibility to the living. Respect for grief does not require surrendering the public’s right to answers.

If institutions were credible, speculation would be unnecessary. If investigations were swift and independent, doubt would not linger. If accountability were certain, tragedies would be mourned without suspicion.

The unease felt by the public says less about doubt and more about experience.

Silence is not accountability. Silence is merely the absence of sound, not the presence of truth.

We can honor Maria Catalina Cabral in death while insisting that the questions surrounding her public role are not quietly buried with her.

Ang pananagutan ay parang ilaw sa dilim. Kung mananatili tayong tahimik at takot, mawawala ang liwanag.

Manindigan tayo, magsalita tayo, magtanong tayo, at ipaglaban natin ang tama bago tuluyang maglaho ang liwanag ng katotohanan.

Ed Javier

Ed Javier is a veteran communicator with over 35 years of experience in corporate, government, and advocacy communications, spanning the terms of seven Philippine presidents. He is also a political analyst, entrepreneur, and media professional. Drawing on this experience, he delivers clear, accessible analysis of political, governance, and business issues.