December 04, 2016•Update: December 08, 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
The Philippines’ vice president announced Sunday that she would resign from her cabinet post, referring to “major differences” with President Rodrigo Duterte and an alleged plot to “steal” her elected seat.
Leni Robredo -- who also held the post of housing secretary -- said in a statement that Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco, Jr. sent her a text message relaying Duterte’s instruction through his executive assistant, Bong Go, for her to “desist from attending all Cabinet meetings starting this Monday, December 5”.
“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 into motion,” local media quoted her statement as saying.
Robredo hails from the Liberal Party of Duterte’s predecessor.
“From the very beginning, the President and I had major differences… I had hoped that [the] shared commitment to the poor and marginalized would transcend the differences between us,” she said Sunday.
“This is the last straw, because it makes it impossible for me to perform my duties. Hence, I am tendering my resignation from the Cabinet on Monday, December 5, 2016,” she added.
Robredo has criticized Duterte’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs which has left more than 2,000 dead in police operations according to national police figures, and Duterte’s decision to allow the burial of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the country’s heroes’ cemetery.
She defeated the late strongman’s son, former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., in the May 9 vote for the vice presidency by a narrow margin -- resulting in Marcos’ protesting of her proclamation before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Duterte referred to the protest while visiting China in October when he said “if [Bongbong] wins in his protest, he could be our vice president”.
