Was Cabral the traffic officer?

There were, at least, three prominent people who died at the hands of assassins years ago. They were U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Senator Benigno “Ninoy” S. Aquino, Jr. The circumstances surrounding their deaths became subjects of this thing called “conspiracy theory”. The internet explains that a conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that claims it is the result of a secret, often sinister plot by powerful groups, rejecting the official or more probable explanation and often involving political motivations, insufficient evidence, and paranoia, functioning as an alternative narrative for difficult events. These theories offer a sense of control or understanding, interpreting a lack of evidence as proof of a deeper cover-up, and frequently arise during times of uncertainty.

Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. To investigate his assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson organized a commission headed by former chief justice Earl Warren. The final report of the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy and he acted alone. However, extensive conspiracy theory fueled by public distrust in government, conflicting witness accounts, and the dramatic nature of the event challenged the official conclusion of the Warren Commission.

King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After the assassination, one James Earl Ray, the initial suspect, fled to London and was captured there. He avoided jury trial by entering a guilty plea and was sentenced to 99 years imprisonment. Later, Ray recanted his plea and conspiracy theories proposing that he was just a scapegoat and a larger plot involving the U.S. government, the Mafia, and other groups were responsible persisted despite multiple official investigations concluding that Ray was the lone assassin.

Senator Ninoy Aquino Jr. was assassinated on August 21, 1983 at the tarmac of the then Manila International Airport. Government authorities immediately claimed communist involvement. While it was widely believed that Ninoy was assassinated on the orders of Marcos, this has never been conclusively proven. In October 1983, President Ferdinand Marcos established an all civilian body led by Corazon Agrava to investigate the Aquino murder. After an 11-month investigation, Agrava concluded that the murder was a military conspiracy.

I am talking about conspiracy theories because former Department of Public Work and Highways undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral, one of the key figures in the ongoing investigation on anomalous flood-control projects and alleged budget insertions was found dead in a ravine along Kennon Road, Camp 4, Benguet, last Thursday evening. Did she commit suicide? Or was she murdered? Certainly, she was not as prominent as Kennedy, King, and Ninoy Aquino but her perceived knowledge in how the trillion pesos of peoples’ taxes were plundered made her a most crucial witness.

A national newspaper reported that Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Jonvic Remulla said the autopsy on Cabral and initial findings pointed to suicide, but the government would still pursue the possibility of foul play, among others, to dispel suspicions of conspiracy to silence her. Why? Here is a conspiracy theory. Cabral was as key to the whole plunder operation as kind of a traffic officer. Meaning, she was in the position to direct where public funds would be sourced from and point such allocation to which congressional district the money be assigned to. Indeed, like a policeman managing traffic only this time peoples’ money was involved. Her knowledge would be vital in the current investigations reason enough for the Independent Commission for Infrastructure to invite her as a resource person. I surmise that her appearance before the ICI would give the whole country information on who the corrupt people should be made accountable! Her sudden demise is as touchy as who really killed Kennedy, King, and Ninoy Aquino!