This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The vice-president of the Philippine resigned from a cabinet post on Monday, citing “major differences in principles and values” with President Rodrigo Duterte and an unspecified plot to remove her from the vice presidency.

Leni Robredo, a human rights lawyer and respected political newcomer, tendered her resignation as housing secretary in a letter to the president but will stay on in her elected post as vice-president.

In the Philippines, presidents and vice-presidents are elected separately and have often come from rival political parties, as is the case with Duterte and Robredo.

Philippines' deadly drug war praised by Donald Trump, says Rodrigo Duterte Read more

“I will not allow the vice-presidency to be stolen. I will not allow the will of the people to be thwarted,” Robredo said in a statement before her resignation. “I will continue to serve the Filipino family and fulfil their dream for a better life.”

Her departure comes amid a political storm for Duterte over his decision to allow the burial of long-dead dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the country’s “heroes’ cemetery” and a bloody crackdown against illegal drugs that has alarmed western governments and human rights watchdogs.

Robredo is the second key official to resign from Duterte’s administration in less than a week. Maria Serena Diokno quit as head of the government’s historical commission on Tuesday in protest at Duterte’s decision to allow Marcos’s burial in the hallowed cemetery.

Robredo cited her opposition to the burial, the drug killings, Duterte’s plan to reimpose the death penalty and “sexual attacks against women” among the issues on which she differed with Duterte, who took office in June.

The last straw, she said, was when she was notified on Saturday by cabinet secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr through a text message about the president’s order for Robredo “to desist from attending all cabinet meetings”, starting on Monday.

“There is no point for her to attend cabinet meetings if her position is always contradictory to the president’s,” Evasco told the local Rappler news portal.

Duterte’s communications secretary, Martin Andanar, said “recent events” had “showed the differences between the president and the vice-president as becoming irreconcilable and public”.

Duterte’s move, Robredo said, made it impossible for her to do her work. “Remaining in your cabinet has become untenable,” Robredo said in a short resignation letter sent to Duterte on Monday morning.

The vice president has said the budget for government agencies dealing with housing has been cut significantly, her recommended appointments have not been acted on and an executive order aiming to make her agency, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, effective has not been signed.

Robredo, 52, did not provide details about the alleged plot to remove her from the vice-presidency, but her electoral victory has been questioned by her closest rival in the race, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of the late dictator.

Marcos Jr lost by a slim margin to Robredo, the widow of a popular politician who built a name as an honest, hands-on provincial mayor who wore slippers to work and reached out to the poor in the countryside.

Robredo’s husband died in a plane crash in 2012, and she later acceded to widespread calls for her to enter politics.

Robredo said she had chosen to ignore warnings “of a plot to steal the vice-presidency” and instead tried to focus on her work. “But the events of recent days indicate that this plot is now being set into motion,” Robredo said, adding that she would continue to support the positive actions of Duterte’s administration “and oppose those that are inimical to the people’s interest.”

Associated Press contributed to this report