Cabinet members should resign from their posts if they support opposition candidates in the 2010 national and local elections, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III issued the call in the wake of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo’s open declaration of support for the presidential bid of Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III instead of administration bet Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Leaving the Arroyo government was the “honorable thing” for Cabinet members who refuse to support administration candidates next year, Bello said.

Secretary Romulo declared his preference for Aquino while accompanying President Arroyo in a fournation swing.

Romulo’s choice of Aquino was apparently borne out of the fact that he has been a loyal ally of the late President Corazon C. Aquino, Senator Aquino’s mother, who supported his senatorial bid in the late 1980’s.

Ear l ier, Speaker ProsperoNograles, vice chairman of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, dared Romulo and other Cabinet members who support presidential bets other than Teodoro to quit out of “delicadeza”.

However, Nograles did not say whether the same unwritten policy should be imposed on Lakas-Kampi-CMD members, some of whom are reportedly planning to jump ship soon.

Romulo’s son, Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, said he sees nothing wrong to calls for his father’s resignation from the Arroyo Cabinet “if this is a Malacañang policy.”

Likewise, the young Romulo declared that he will not follow the wishes of his father and instead will support Teodoro.

“I am 100 percent for Gibo,” the Pasig lawmaker said as he kept distance from his father’s decision to back Aquino, Teodoro’s second-degree cousin.

“Lakas-Kampi members who will not support Secretary Teodoro should also make clear their choices. The party leadership should lay down a policy – whether they have to resign or file a leave of absence (from the party),” the young Romulo said.

Bello, also senior deputy secretary of Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, said members of the Arroyo Cabinet should support the choice of President Arroyo, who also sits as chairman of the ruling party.

“As members of President Arroyo’s Cabinet, we are alter egos of the President. If we cannot support her choice, the only honorable thing to do is leave the cabinet. You cannot have alter-egos of the president having different views from the President,” he said Filipino over a radio interview.

Bello said he looks up to Romulo, one of the President’s senior Cabinet officials, and expects him to do proper action after making such endorsement of Aquino.

“He is a very respectable, very credible, very effective member of the Cabinet. As a person, I have very high respect for him. I know when he makes a decision it is for a very good reason and I know that he knows what he will do after,” he said.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Lorelei Fajardo, in a later news briefing in the Palace, agreed that Cabinet members who will actively campaign for opposition candidates should resign. Fajardo even praised Presidential Anti-Graft Commission Commissioner Jaime Jacob for quitting his government position to support Senator Aquino in next year’s presidential polls.

Despite Romulo’s declaration of support for Aquino, Bello said there is no need for a loyalty check among Cabinet members, saying these officials are aware they should toe the administration line. “We know that if we do not support the President then we have no other honorable choice except to leave the Cabinet,” he said.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez, meantime, warned against a downfall of the administration party if the President tolerates Cabinet members defying her position.

Gonzalez, in a phone interview, said Romulo’s endorsement of Aquino was “bad for the administration party” and may trigger an “exodus” of other Cabinet members who will support opposition candidates.

“If the President will tolerate that, then everybody, any member of the Cabinet, can be free to do what they want and that will be the end of the party,” he said.

Gonzalez insisted that Cabinet members, who are subordinates of the President, are expected to  support Teodoro and the rest of the administration ticket especially since Mrs. Arroyo is also the chairman of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party.

Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, a member of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD, said Romulo’s support for Aquino was a slap on President Arroyo’s face, noting that the senator is a member of the opposition and as such, is very critical to the administration.

But House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Simeon Datumanong said he is optimistic no other Cabinet official will follow Romulo’s move.

At the Upper Chamber, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the logical and honorable option left for Secretary Romulo after openly supporting the presidential bid of Aquino III is to resign.

That option should be considered by Romulo because an apparent division in the political thrusts of Cabinet members reflects on President Arroyo.

This developed as Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri expressed hopes that Cabinet members should be apolitical and be silent on whom their presidential choices should be because they serve the whole nation. (With reports from Mario B. Casayuran, Kris Bayos, and Edmer F. Panesa)

Asked if Malacañang expects Romulo to quit the Cabinet, Bello said: "Knowing him, I think Secretary Romulo will do what is proper under the circumstances."