Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Chief Legal Counsel of the President Salvador Panelo dismissed rumors that Vice President Leni Robredo was fired from the Cabinet.

“I don’t think she was fired. Because if she was fired, the Palace would not have accepted the resignation,” Panelo told CNN Philippines “Network News” on Tuesday.

Robredo tendered her resignation as Chairperson Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) on Monday morning.

She said it has become “impossible” for her to fulfill her duties Housing Secretary after she received a text message from Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco, Jr., relaying the President’s instruction through Bong Go (special assistant to the President) for her to “to desist from attending all Cabinet meetings starting December 5.”

For Panelo, Robredo is “torn” between President Rodrigo Duterte — “whom she wants to serve with sincerity” — and “certain issues.”

Robredo has been vocal in her objections to some policies of the Duterte administration. Last November, she denounced the surprise burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.

“He (Marcos) is no hero,” she said. “If he were, obviously his family would not have to hide his burial like a shameful criminal deed.”

For his part, President Duterte has repeatedly explained that the law allows the burial of Marcos because the latter was a soldier and a president.

“As a lawyer, I stick by what the law says,” Duterte said last November.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Tuesday that “irreconcilable differences and not inefficiency” led to the decision to bar Robredo from Cabinet meetings.

“It began with the fact (that President Duterte) no longer felt comfortable working with the Vice President,” Abella said. “The President, I suppose, felt uncomfortable with her engagement in certain political actions.”

Abella added in an interview on The Source Wednesday that, in his opinion, the President’s decision was because of Robredo’s closeness to people against Duterte.

“This is really above my paycheck, but basically, I suppose it was her close actions with certain people who seem to be intent on not just opposing, but really resisting the presidency,” he said.

Liberal Party Campaign Spokesperson Barry Gutierrez believed that the barring of the Vice President was “strange.”

“The strange thing there is if it was irreconcilable differences anchored on different issues like extrajudicial killings and the Marcos burial… Vice President Robredo was very open and forthright about her positions on these matters with the president himself,” he told “Network News” on Tuesday.

“In fact several times during Cabinet meetings, she thanked the President that despite their differences in opinions, he did not hold these against her,” he added.

House Speaker: ‘I think Robredo is fired’

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier said in a text message to media that he thinks the President fired Robredo.

Alvarez said: “Considering the situation I think she is fired.”

Former President and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo agrees with Alvarez. Arroyo explained that as president, she refrained from directly firing a cabinet member and, instead, arranged a way for the person concerned to quit.

Arroyo added that she once booted out a senior government official by text message.

Asked who the official was, Arroyo said: “It’s been done before… I’d rather not say (who). A senior official. Chairman of the board.”

CNN Philippines’ Ina Andolong, Joyce Ilas and Fiona Nicolas contributed to this report.