An influential Filipino American businesswoman has denied accusations that she was planning to unseat President Rodrigo Duterte through protest rallies.
Loida Nicolas Lewis, who served as the former National Chairwoman of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NAFFAA), the largest advocacy group for Filipino Americans in the United States, said the charges were “complete fabrication and totally false.”
Lewis, a lawyer by profession, is a known leader in the Filipino American community. She served as Chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice International, a $2 billion multinational food company with operations all across Europe, from 1994 up to 2000.
Currently, Lewis serves as chair of the US Pinoys for Good Governance.
Lewis said Duterte was fed “misinformation designed to divide the country and advance the interests of a certain political group while casting Filipino-Americans in an unfavorable light.”
“Along with others, I do have concerns about extrajudicial killings but these are questions that have been raised and debated publicly and have no connection at all to any plots or conspiracies being imagined by those who are spreading lies and hatred between fellow Filipinos,” said Nicolas-Lewis.
The allegations “I am supporting a plot to unseat President Duterte are complete fabrication and totally false.”
Duterte has revealed that wealthy individuals in the United States were allegedly plotting against him. “Next year, there will be mass demonstration, for all I care. Wala akong illusions. Do not give me a reason to go out because you might have…you might get your wish.”
“Meron next year, a certain financier, mayaman na babae who married a black and is now a millionaire and she is planning to do massive demonstration,” Duterte said.
Duterte did not mention the woman but was apparently referring to the Filipino American leader Lewis.