MANILA – Vice President Leni Robredo said Monday she would guard against the re-imposition of a dictatorship and defend her position after she quit President Rodrigo Duterte’s cabinet due to policy differences.

Robredo said she would support Duterte’s policies as long as they are “right and just,” but “will not hesitate to dissent” if the government does otherwise.

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“Buong tapang tayong magmamatyag at magbabantay nang hindi na maibalik pa ang anumang diktadurya na siyang kumitil sa libo-libong buhay noong rehimeng Marcos,” she said in a televised news conference.

(We will bravely stand guard against the return of any form of the dictatorship that claimed the lives of thousands during the Marcos regime.)

“We have fought this battle before and won. We will never let anyone revise our history and twist it to turn evil into good,” she added.

Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., a Duterte ally, is protesting his narrow loss to Robredo in the May elections before the Supreme Court.

Robredo has differed with Duterte on key issues, including the burial of the late strongman, Ferdinand Marcos, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery) last month, and the alleged extra-judicial killings of drug suspects.

Addressing the nation, the Vice President said she resigned to “speak my mind and to protect you and your dreams and your future.”

Robredo said she sensed "despair and anxiety" following her break from Duterte, after just five months.

"This is not the time for fear. It is a time for conviction it is a time for courage," she said.