DOF Usec. Cielo Magno quits post

Department of Finance (DOF) Undersecretary Cielo Magno has resigned from her post, allegedly because of her contentions over the imposition of ceilings on the retail prices of rice and her push for reforms in the mining tax regime.

In a Viber message to GMA News Online, Magno confirmed that she stepped down as undersecretary of the DOF “effective Sept. 16.”

As undersecretary, she oversees the DOF’s Fiscal Policy and Monitoring Group, which is responsible for formulating tax reform proposals and other fiscal policy recommendations as the legislative liaison of the DOF.

Magno is also the chairperson of the Fiscal Incentives Review Board’s Technical Committee and the Inter-Agency Investment Promotion Coordination Committee.

The resigned Finance official said she will return to the academe.

Prior to her stint as DOF undersecretary, Magno was an associate professor in the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics.

On condition of anonymity, a source told GMA News Online that Magno was asked by Malacañang to resign.

The source said Magno’s apparent firing from the DOF was triggered by her Facebook post that allegedly threw “shade” over the imposition of rice price ceiling.

The post in question shows a graph representing the law of supply and demand — a concept in economics that explains how prices of commodities are influenced by supply and consumer demand — accompanied by a caption “I miss teaching” and a teacher emoji.

Last week, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. approved the imposition of the price caps —  P41 per kilo for regular milled rice and P45 per kilo for well-milled rice — amid the surge in retail prices of rice in local markets, which ranged from P45 to P70 per kilo.

Marcos said that the mandatory price ceiling on rice would only be temporary.

Economic managers, NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, have earlier backed the price cap on retail rice prices.

The source also said apart from the issue on price ceiling, Magno was forced to quit because of the reforms she was pushing such as increasing the mining tax.

The DOF has been pushing for new mining fiscal regime, rationalizing the industry’s fiscal regime through the impositions of margin-based royalty on large-scale mining operations.

GMA News Online reached out the Malacañang and Diokno for comment, but no response yet has been received as of posting. —KBK, GMA Integrated News