WHETHER she was forced to resign or she resigned voluntarily, or her term expired and she had to return to the academe, former Finance Undersecretary Cielo Magno has become a case study of how the Marcos administration handles differences of opinion and internal policy disagreements.
Magno’s reported statement last Thursday that she was “forced to resign” was immediately met with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin’s retort that she is “clearly set on maligning” the Marcos administration from the beginning, prompting Malacañang to “terminate her appointment.”
“(She) has been against the policies of this administration and made it known to the public on social media long before the President even assumed office,” Bersamin explained.
A simple perusal of this explanation from the Palace reveals its illogical bent. If Undersecretary Magno has been identified as somebody who had been maligning the Marcos administration even before the President even assumed office, why the hell did Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno and President Bongbong Marcos himself appoint her in the first place?
‘What happened to Magno is not the first case of the government losing great and capable minds who might even help save the nation from this economic quagmire. It will not be the last, too.’
The fact is Magno was given a very important role in the review, study and formulation of key economic policies coming out of the Department of Finance. Remember that she was undersecretary for fiscal policy and monitoring group, and even worked well with House members and senators on key pieces of economic legislation with Sen. JV Ejercito who even cited her inputs in the scheduling of income classifications of local government units, saying they worked quite well together.
The Action for Economic Reforms (AER) which includes reform-minded public intellectuals, academics, and civil society leaders, said Magno is “most professional and competent,” and far from the disparaging image conjured up by ES Bersamin about her.
The AER, a non-government organization engaged in research and advocacy,
said the executive secretary’s allegations about Magno were “baseless and unfair.”
It noted that among her recent tasks was to help craft pension reforms for the military and uniformed personnel to prevent what Finance Secretary Diokno said was a “fiscal collapse.”
The AER also said government “lost a reformer with technical expertise who can reach out to sectors with varying persuasions – politicians, investors and businessmen, people’s organizations, academics, and the international community. “
The most likely reason she had to part ways with the finance department was her post on her Facebook page of a chart illustrating the law of supply and demand as a criticism of the administration’s decision to artificially lower rice prices by setting a P41 cap on regular-milled rice and P45 on well-milled rice.
The economist in her apparently just could not accept the validity or the utility of this decision. She probably ventilated her contrary position in the proper forum or panel inside the DOF or even in Malacañang itself but was rejected. So she went to social media, which is a fatal mistake for any official who wanted to save his or her job.
What happened to Magno is not the first case of the government losing great and capable minds who might even help save the nation from this economic quagmire. It will not be the last, too.
