Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to retain the country’s vice-president until her term ends, just days after she resigned from the Cabinet, complaining of a “plot to steal” her position.
Vice-President Leni Robredo resigned from the Cabinet on Monday, saying that she would lead the opposition and challenge Duterte’s policies, such as his deadly war on drugs and moves to reinstate the death penalty.
“I will assure Leni and the rest of the Bicol region that you will have her until the very end of this term,” Duterte told reporters after a ceremony to break ground for an airport in the central region of Bicol. “And there is no such thing as removing a vice-president.”
Robredo was a one-term congresswoman from Naga City, located in Bicol.
In earlier speeches, Duterte has accused the opposition of using street protests against the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes’ cemetery as a pretext to force him out of office and make way for Robredo.
Robredo was elected vice-president in May in a separate contest and was not Duterte’s running mate.
She has warned of a plot taking shape to remove her from the number two post after she was barred from attending regular Cabinet meetings.
The 52-year-old social activist and human rights lawyer won by a narrow margin over former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whose father was overthrown in a 1986 revolt.
Marcos Jr, a key ally of Duterte, has filed an election protest.
Robredo did not give details of the alleged plot to “steal” the vice-presidency, but said it was telling that Marcos had accompanied Duterte on an official visit to China in October.
She did not say who was behind the alleged plot to remove her as vice-president.
But she cited “major differences in principles and values” with Duterte, such as over the rash of extrajudicial killings during his “war on drugs” and the hero’s burial that he granted for dictator Marcos.
“I had been warned of a plot to steal the vice-presidency. I have chosen to ignore this and focus on the job at hand. But the events of recent days indicate that this plot is now being set in motion,” Robredo had said in a statement on her Facebook page.
“I will not allow the vice-presidency to be stolen. I will not allow the will of the people to be thwarted” despite leaving the Cabinet, she said.
“We received a text (SMS) message last Saturday from Cabinet Secretary (Leoncio) Evasco, relaying the president’s instruction ... for me ‘to desist from attending all Cabinet meetings starting this Monday, December 5’.”
“This is the last straw, because it makes it impossible for me to perform my duties,” Robredo said.
She had been appointed to the Cabinet as a housing official.
Duterte’s war on drugs has claimed thousands of lives and sparked international criticism, including from key ally the United States and the UN.
He has struck back by calling US President Barack Obama a “son of a w****” and UN chief Ban Ki-moon a “fool”.
Duterte’s spokesman Martin Andanar, interviewed on ABS-CBN television this week, confirmed Robredo’s departure from the Cabinet and cited “irreconcilable differences”.
Regarding the alleged plot to unseat her from the vice-presidency, Andanar said: “If there is a plot, that plot did not come from the camp of the president.”
Evasco confirmed separately that he had sent Robredo a message, telling her not to attend further cabinet meetings on the instructions of Duterte.
He said there was no order to strip Robredo of her housing position.
Duterte won presidential elections in May after pledging to kill tens of thousands of drug suspects, warning that otherwise the Philippines would turn into a narco-state.
Since he assumed office, some 4,800 people have been killed by police or unidentified attackers.
Other differences cited by Robredo were the government’s moves to bring back the death penalty, to lower the age of criminal liability to nine and “sexual attacks against women”.
She did not specify which attacks but Duterte and his supporters have often used accusations of sexual misbehaviour and other insults against female critics.
Robredo rose to fame as the wife of respected cabinet member Jesse Robredo.
When her husband died in a plane crash in 2012, public clamour encouraged her to enter politics.