Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. (File photo from Lakas-CMD)
LIPA CITY, Batangas, Philippines — Supporters attend the UniTeam rallies not because they were paid but because they love the group, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio told the crowd in this city on Wednesday.
Duterte-Carpio and her running mate, former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., was Lipa as part of their campaigning in vote-rich Southern Luzon with merely 19 days left before the elections.
During the rally, the crowd cheered: “Hindi kami bayad.”’ [Translation: “We were not paid.”]
There had been reports that some attendees in the Marcos-Duterte rallies were given cash incentives for their attendance.
“I’m sure that you’re not paid because many of you have not eaten yet. You’ve been much earlier. It’s hot, the sun is high, and you will still have to travel far to get home without fare,” Duterte-Carpio said in Filipino.
“So I know very well that you’re here because you love the UniTeam,” she added.
On Wednesday morning, Marcos campaigned in Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro while Duterte-Carpio met with several sectors in Batangas City and Malvar town in Batangas. The two reunited in Lipa City for the grand rally.
This is not the first time that the tandem visited the Mindoro provinces, Batangas, and Laguna. After all, these are some of the most vote-rich provinces in the country.
Laguna is the fourth most vote-rich province in the country with over 2.04 million voters and Batangas is seventh with over 1.82 million voters.
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