Sara Duterte thanks staff: ‘I was so confident in you I slept on election day’

MANILA, Philippines — Vice presidential frontrunner Sara Duterte-Carpio thanked her staff on Tuesday night, saying she was “so confident” in them that she slept soundly on election day.

Duterte-Carpio made the remark before her campaign staff at the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) and Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) headquarters in Mandaluyong City.

“I thank you all. And the measure of my trust in all of you is — as they say, nobody should sleep because whoever sleeps will be cheated. That’s what they say. But I was so confident in all of you I went to sleep last night,” Carpio said, speaking in a mix of Filipino and English, in jest.

“There you were looking for me last night. I was asleep,” she added.

Duterte-Carpio, who is leading in the vice presidential race, gave this reminder to her staff: “This is just the start. We have a lot more work to do for our country, and we hope to collaborate and coordinate with your respective offices so that we continue helping our country.”

“Of course, we are doing this because we want to see a better country, a better future for our children. Thank you very much,” she added.

According to Duterte-Carpio, a leader “is only as good as the best of his or her team.”

“So if the team is good, the leader will be successful. And you are that for me,” she said.

As of 9:02 p.m., Wednesday, the partial and unofficial count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) shows that Duterte-Carpio leading the vice presidential race with over 31.5 million votes.

In a far second is Sen. Francis Pangilinan with more than 9.2 million votes followed by Senate President Vicente Sotto III with over 8.1 million votes.

RELATED STORIES

VP frontrunner Sara Duterte to serve as DepEd secretary, says Marcos Jr.

Marcos-Duterte admin would be new era of unity, Sara spox says

PPCRV partial, unofficial count: Sara Duterte-Carpio so far leads 2022 VP race