Who’s afraid of Loida Nicolas-Lewis?
The rumor mills here in the metropolis are spreading gossips that the vice president, who is a Bicolana from Naga City, is now in close alliance with a powerful, rich and super-influential lady, another Bicolana from Sorsogon, Loida Nicolas-Lewis. This exceedingly wealthy Filipino-American is allegedly supporting a Duterte Resign Movement, and Vice President Leni Robredo supposedly had a very crucial meeting with her in the US earlier this month at the height of the typhoon Nina. Of course, VP Leni denied this and disowned any connection with any movement seeking the ouster of President Rodrigo R. Duterte. But Malacañang partisans are not naive and this matter is now being subjected reportedly to a very searching scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the people are curious – who, in the world, is this Loida Nicolas-Lewis? Why would she even deserve the attention of the Palace, and what could she do to matters of the state? Well, this was a simple provinciana with breeding, coming from a “buena familia” from that far-flung, often typhoon-ravaged province of Sorsogon, the southernmost edge of Bicol, which is more accessible to Northern Samar. By the way, Sorsogon is also the home base of Senator Chiz Escudero who remains mysteriously silent nowadays in the midst of many political tempests and storms. Bicol, too, is the home region of the feisty and never-yielding fighting lady senator Leila de Lima, and also of the never-say-die Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, as well as the seemingly vanished Gringo Honasan.
And so, all these political enemies of President Duterte are from Bicol: the vice president Leni Robredo (supported by the yellow battalion of PNoy and Mar and the LP of Frank Drilon, Kiko Pangilinan and whatever rag tag remains of the abandoned bandwagon), and Senator Leila de Lima (supported by her human rights advocates and anti-EJK and summary executions, reportedly including the Church), the intriguingly silent Chiz Escudero, the ever noisy oppositionist Trillanes, and the old soldier who never dies Gringo Honasan and his Magdalo partisans. Now that they have found a financier and a link to the global arena, Loida Nicolas-Lewis, will the movement to oust the president fly?
Who is this Lewis, anyway? She finished her law degree in 1960 in UP where they claim to teach law in a grand manner. She was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1968. Armed with her law diploma, she ventured into New York and became the first Asian to pass the American Bar in 1970, without having to study law in the US. So, this is no ordinary pretty Bicolana. Like Leni and Leila, she is Loida, the lady with brains and guts and passion. Then she met her future husband in a blind date arranged by friends. Her husband owned a two billion US dollar worth of a global conglomerate engaged in food manufacturing, sales and distribution all over Europe. When her African-American husband (a successful Wall Street financier) Reginald died, Loida took over the leadership of the conglomerate.
Today, Loida is active in her many advocacies, on top of her businesses. She is involved in an NGO called Global Filipino Diaspora Council. She is also into the movement to depend our territories against Chinese incursions. She was allegedly a strong supporter of the defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Our sources told us that she also supported the late presidents Cory Aquino and her son PNoy. And so, the lines are drawn. The issues are joined. The die is cast. This woman can be, to put it in a figure of speech, be on fire, or should we say, with the fire in her belly, and the money in her war chest, can make the political arena a very exciting one in the next few months. Kulba hinam.
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