DAVAO CITY – Former President Duterte said he would catch up on lost sleep after his six-year term ended at noon Thursday, June 30.
In his first public appearance as a private citizen during the "Salamat Tatay Digong, A Homecoming Concert" at NCCC Mall VP here, Duterte talked about the burdens and problems he faced during his term as president that only allowed him to sleep from four to five hours a day.
“Unsa man imo plano? Matulog ko og otso oras. Tinuod. Tanaw nako way presidente makatulog og otso oras pukawon kana sa problema (What’s my plan? To sleep for eight hours a day. This is true. I think that no President can sleep for eight hours a day because you would be awakened by problems),” he said.
Duterte said he would start his day in Malacañang going through voluminous paperwork until late evening but added that he had sometimes worked until the wee hours of the morning for his Cabinet meetings which started at 2 a.m.
As a lawyer, he said that he himself studied all the documents before signing them. Duterte said he would sleep at 7 or 8 a.m.
A day before stepping down from his position, Duterte recalled that he spent his day signing more documents, many of them were left unsigned, leaving them to his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The 77-year-old former Chief Executive added that he lacked sleep even in his last morning in Malacanang as he woke up too early to receive Marcos as the new president.
“We’re always deprived of sleep. Even if I was here in Davao, I had to work and sign papers until the evening. It’s always not enough,” Duterte said.