Ex-DOF usec says Palace wanted her out in July

MANILA, Philippines — As early as July this year, Cielo Magno says Malacañang already wanted her out as undersecretary of the Department of Finance (DOF), on perceptions of being a “kakampink” or supporter of former vice president Leni Robredo.

Magno told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News yesterday that Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno persuaded President Marcos at the time to keep her in the DOF.

Diokno was the one who recruited Magno last year to join him in the DOF from the University of the Philippines School of Economics. Magno returns to the UPSE beginning today as a tenured professor.

Magno told “The Chiefs” that apart from resuming teaching, she intends to write a book on economics for high school, to include explanations about the law of supply and demand.

A graph on the law of supply and demand, which she posted on Facebook together with a comment, “I miss teaching,” on the day that Malacañang announced the order on rice price caps turned out to be the last straw for the Palace.

This time, Diokno could no longer dissuade the Palace. Magno said Diokno showed her a text message from Malacañang last Wednesday, telling him to ask for her resignation.

“I was asked to resign, because of a post on Facebook, by Secretary Diokno with an instruction from Malacañang,” Magno said. “Since July of this year, he was asked to remove me… because of (my) being a kakampink.”

Magno said she voted for Robredo but was not part of her campaign team.

When Diokno invited her to join him in the DOF, Magno said she opened her social media posts for public scrutiny, expecting that she would be vetted by the Marcos administration for her positions on various issues, including politics.

While she was critical of both the Marcos dictatorship and the candidacy of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., urging his family to pay the P200 billion in estate taxes, Magno thought the invitation for her to join the finance team of the new administration bolstered its call for unity – the theme of the Marcos-Duterte campaign.

As finance undersecretary, she supported the concept of a sovereign wealth fund, although she said the final form of the Maharlika Investment Fund did not turn out to be what she expected.

She was deployed to explain to the military and other uniformed personnel the reforms Diokno was pushing in their pension system to prevent “fiscal collapse.” Magno supported Diokno’s arguments on the MUP issue, and was supposed to meet this week with other MUP representatives.

Last July when Malacañang first wanted her out, Magno said, “I know Secretary Diokno talked to the President, to explain that I was helping him with all the reforms in the DOF. And he said the President said, OK, he can keep me.”

When Diokno received the instruction from Malacañang to terminate her, “I said I was resigning, so I submitted a resignation letter last Wednesday,” Magno said.

Over the weekend, Diokno told reporters that he and the rest of the economic team were not consulted and were “shocked” by the imposition of price caps on rice.

Malacañang announced that Magno was “unsupportive” and bent on “maligning the administration,” so her tenure in the DOF was no longer renewed following its “expiration.”

The full interview of The Chiefs with Magno airs this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on One News.