Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, also presidential spokesman, said the President respects Benipayo’s decision to leave government service as state counsel and concentrate private practice of law.

"The President respects the decision of Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo as she accepts his resignation with regret," he said in an official press statement following Benipayo’s March 14 letter of irrevocable resignation submitted to Mrs. Arroyo.

Benipayo, one of the several aspirants to a vacant seat in the Supreme Court, has tendered his irrevocable resignation at a time when the Arroyo administration is facing tough legal battles before the Supreme Court.

His abrupt resignation came as the government was defending Mrs. Arroyo’s decision to place the entire country under a state of national emergency under the questioned Proclamation 1017 to quell an alleged rebellion last Feb. 24.

Malacañang insiders claimed that Benipayo was forced to submit his resignation after the President has reportedly grown dissatisfied with his performance as state counsel, presumably in connection with the controversial Proclamation 1017.

Some quarters have petitioned the Supreme Court to rule on the legality and constitutionality of Proclamation 1017 which others claimed has allowed law enforcement authorities to arrest without warrants those considered as enemies of the government.

"We’d prefer not to discuss or speculate on the reasons behind his decision to quit as this is a matter between him and the appointing authority. We ask those in the media to spare the good man from unfair innuendo," Bunye said.

"SolGen Benipayo eminently upheld the interest of the government in several pivotal cases, and we thank him for the services he has rendered to the people," he added.

The President’s chief of staff earlier said that Benipayo’s resignation would not affect government cases pending before the Supreme Court, stressing that most of the legal work on the cases are being handled by government lawyers.

"This will not in any way affect the government cases at the Supreme Court," he said, adding that Benipayo’s resignation should not be misconstrued as a withdrawal of support to Mrs. Arroyo.

Mrs. Arroyo is reportedly considering Presidential Legal Counsel Antonio Nachura and Undersecretary Agnes Devanadera of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel to be Benipayo’s likely successor.

As this developed, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez debunked yesterday reports that the resignation of Benipayo has something to do with his alleged poor performance in defending Proclamation 1017.

This he said as he admitted having endorsed Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo Nachura in place of Benipayo whose resignation will take effect on April 1.

"Well, nobody is perfect in performing his job. I know he was doing his best. I heard he was caught making inconsistent statements during the oral argument. Nobody is perfect. Sometimes media interprets the performance of government officials using its own yardstick, which is unfair," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said he was surprised when he learned from Benipayo that he was planning to resign. He said Benipayo "whispered" to him during their cluster meeting on Piatco issue last Monday that he wants to return to private life.

"I said if you feel you are burnt out already, because it’s been four years and you have so many cases, I said why don’t you go on leave. He said ‘I’ll think about it’," the justice chief recounted.

He admitted that Benipayo, who was his junior at the University of Santos Tomas Law School, is a great loss to the government considering his "stature, prestige and competence." (with a report by Gabriel S. Mabutas)