Ion Hotel, where Cabral checked in before her death, is owned by Eric Yap’s close aide

BAGUIO, Philippines – Authorities have obtained a search warrant to sweep a room at the Ion Hotel in Baguio, where public works undersecretary Catalina “Cathy” Cabral had checked in before her death caused by a fall in a ravine in Tuba, Benguet.

Why did Cabral go to Baguio, and how did she end up on that ledge on a cliff in the middle of the winding Kennon Road? Before her death, Cabral was a central figure in the complex investigation of a multi-billion-peso infrastructure scandal, and was accused by another colleague of having operated an entire corrupt system.

Rappler examined the records of all corporate layers from the time Ion Hotel was still Holiday Inn, and the documents led us to one current owner: Ralph Robin Tan.

Tan is often seen with Benguet Representative Eric Yap in both formal and informal events. He is also often tagged in Facebook posts of Yap’s outreach events, and mentioned in speeches thanking Yap for medical assistance.

Tan was also the one who filed with the Commission on Elections in May 2025 a petition to disqualify Tagel Felipe, who was running against Yap for lone district representative of Benguet. Yap won the race.

Rappler cross-matched Tan’s signatures and tax identification number (TIN), and confirmed that Tan, the owner of Ion hotel, is Tan the petitioner, who is also Yap’s close aide.

Yap’s assets have been ordered frozen by the Court of Appeals, based on probable cause evidence that he supposedly is the beneficial owner of the contractor Silverwolves and the aviation company, Sky Yard. Both Silverwolves and Sky Yard are registered with the SEC under the Ching family.

It was also Yap who chaired the House committee on appropriations during the years that presidential son Paolo Duterte’s district in Davao City got P51 billion in infrastructure projects during the pandemic — a windfall that Cabral confirmed years later in a Senate hearing.

CLOSE AIDE. Benguet Representative Eric Yap (left) with Ralph Robin Tan in one of the former’s engagements posted publicly on Facebook.

How did Tan come to own Ion Hotel?

The operator of Ion Hotel is Potiel Resort Management Inc. Rappler confirmed this by trying to book a room and getting bank deposit instructions, as well as seeing the business permits plastered on the hotel’s reception desk.

Potiel started its operation in 2022. Back then, it was owned by retired military general Ferdinand Jose Gaveran Rivera. They eventually sold to DM Capital Venture Corporation, which also operated Holiday Inn before it got entangled with litigation and had to shut down its business.

When Potiel filed its general information sheet (GIS) in March 2025, its owners were still Michael Darren Sanchez and DM Capital. DM Capital is owned through a holding corporation by the family of Sanchez, including David Sanchez, who denied to Bilyonaryo.com that he was Cabral’s boyfriend. Those rumors are “totally untrue,” David Sanchez told Bilyonaryo over the weekend.

Potiel filed a new GIS on August 18, 2025, or a week after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. spoke in Malacañang against what he said were anomalous flood control projects. In that updated GIS, Tan is the new owner controlling 99% of the company, or P499.9 million worth of shares.

The ties that bind

Silverwolves’ Ching family also owned another Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) contractor, the Unimax Steel Structure and Construction Corporation. In June 2025, Unimax was still owned by the Ching family, and someone else who controls 20% of the shares. That person’s registered residence is a five-story building in Quezon City right next door to the residence of Yap’s brother, ACT-CIS Representative Edvic Yap.

Addresses have been verified through Edvic Yap’s other two companies, Earth Yard Corp. and Ever Young Industrial Sales, whose offices are also within the neighborhood. By October 2025, or months after the flood control controversy broke, Ching and Edvic Yap’s neighbors were no longer owners.

In 2022, Unimax went into a joint venture with Spiderone Construction Company LTD to build a P289-million multi-purpose building in La Trinidad, Benguet. Based on searchable DPWH contracts, the managing officer of Spiderone ,until at least 2019, was David Sanchez. Current contracts now show different managing officers, and David Sanchez said he has divested from the company.

However, in 2018, when Spiderone and joint venture partner EGB Construction won the P169 million project to repair the Baguio Convention Center, David Sanchez was still Spiderone’s manager. David Sanchez is a known businessman in Baguio circles. Mayor Benjamin Magalong had publicly expressed disappointment about the repair.

All of that tie back to the hotel on Legarda Road. Spiderone was a contractor of the now-defunct Holiday Inn in Baguio, the same building that’s now named Ion Hotel.

According to a local report on Amianan Balita Ngayon, Spiderone sued Holiday Inn for unpaid bills in 2021. Holiday Inn, at the time, was owned by Vivotel, which is a subsidiary of DM Capital Holdings Corporation of the Sanchez family. It’s the same family which owned Ion Hotel until it sold to Tan. – Rappler.com