Cielo Magno, an ex-official of the Department of Finance (DOF), joined the TikTok community to discuss the need for transparency in handling taxpayer money.
Magno previously made headlines after she was eased out of her position due to her social media posts perceived to oppose the government’s price cap policy on rice.
The economics professor uploaded her first TikTok video on Sunday, November 5.
Here, she revealed that she joined the video-streaming service because Facebook apparently took down her post promoting her podcast where she showed how ordinary Filipinos can monitor government spending of taxes.
The video also showed Magno trimming her bonsai plant while talking to the viewers.
“So ngayon, pinagtataka ko, bakit itong Facebook e tinatanggal ang post ko tungkol sa confidential funds. Violation daw ito ng community standards. Ano ba ang masama sa discussion tungkol sa confidential funds?” she said.
“Yung post ko naman e tinuturuan lang ang taumbayan kung pano tignan ang government budget. Di ba kaduda duda?” the economist also said.
Magno then speculated that her Facebook posts were reported by people who did not want taxpayers to know how the government spends their hard-earned money.
“Ibig sabihin may mga grupo na nagrereport ng post ko at consciously ayaw ipaalam sa taumbayan kung ano nga ba at paano ginagastos ang pera ng taumbayan. May mga tao na ayaw malaman ang katotohanan tungkol sa confidential fund. Kaduda duda talaga,” she said.
@profcielo #confidentialfunds #abolishconfidentialfunds #bonsai #plantitas ♬ original sound – Cielo Magno
By the end of her video, Magno said that being a “plantita,” a term referring to people who have green thumbs, relieves her stress.
“Kaya mga plantito, plantita, talagang minsan kailangan nating maghalaman e. Pambawas stress ba,” she said.
Magno also announced her TikTok account to her followers on the X app.
“FB took down my posts re: confidential fund podcast with @robyalampay. So I joined TikTok. Mag discuss tayo habang naghahalaman,” she posted with the hashtag #AbolishConfidentialFunds.
What was removed from Meta
Veteran journalist Roby Alampay interviewed Magno for an episode of Teka Teka News on Spotify.
Alampay earlier promoted this podcast on his Facebook account with a link to the Spotify episode.
Titled “Download and CTRL-F: Cielo Magno on how easy it is to monitor government budgets,” the podcast tells listeners a method on how they can monitor and track where taxes are going.
On November 4, Alampay shared that he was surprised that Meta took it down, citing a violation of Facebook’s Community Standards.
He noted that the interview itself was not “controversial.”
“Spoiler Alert: It’s not that controversial,” Alampay said.
“You can listen to the podcast and hear for yourselves. The takedown would be funny if it weren’t so shallow and exasperatingly stupid. Praning lang amp,” he also said.
Magno later saw this update from him. She said that her Facebook posts about it were also removed from the platform.
“FB took down my posts too…bawal na mag discuss ng budget transparency at confidential fund?” she said.
The Spotify podcast itself titled “can still be accessed on the streaming app through this link https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Q3mAwDOOQmjcxfKSMYdE1?si=50f4939a85ad4919.
Magno also figured in a controversy with the government due to her old social media content.
Following her resignation, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said that this move was “expected,” claiming that the ex-undersecretary “clearly does not support the administration and its programs for nation-building.”
READ: Cielo Magno’s exit: A closer look at Facebook post that sparked her DOF departure