MANILA – Filipino-American community leader Loida Nicolas Lewis denied that she is plotting to unseat President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte on Friday said that a Filipina widow of a wealthy African-American is planning to lead a massive demonstration against him.

Reacting to Duterte’s claim, Lewis, who was married to African-American Wall Street financier Reginald Lewis, described Duterte’s claim as “a complete fabrication and totally false.”

“I am concerned that the President is being given misinformation designed to divide the country and advance the interests of a certain political group while casting Filipino Americans in an unfavorable light,” Lewis said in a statement.

Lewis added that she has actually written a letter to the new US ambassador to the Philippines, asking the US government to provide help for the Duterte’s anti-drug campaign through programs for the rehabilitation of drug addicts.

She added that while she has concerns about extra-judicial killings, she has nothing to do with the supposed “plots or conspiracies being imagined by those who are spreading lies and hatred between fellow
Filipinos.”

Duterte has distanced himself from the US over Washington’s criticism of his controversial war on drugs.

The president said those who are still sympathetic with the US may join the supposed rally.

“So, let us see kasi 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. All those who are of this western persuasion,” Duterte said in a speech on Friday, November 4.

“Kung bilib kayo sa America, kung tingin ninyo nagkautang kayo ng loob, please join. And hindi na kailangan magkudeta-coup d’etat. Ibigay ko siya. I myself will swear you sa Malacañang. That these are the new rulers of the Republic and they will run the country, fine.”