Filipino-American businesswoman Loida Nicolas-Lewis on Friday published a Facebook post challenging President Rodrigo Duterte to substantiate his accusation that she had prior knowledge of a prospective preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court into possible crimes against humanity allegations against him.
President Duterte claimed he had listened to a taped recording of a supposed telephone conversation supposedly handed him “by another country.”
Lewis described the alleged wiretapped conversation “bogus and made up.”
Around the middle of February, in an open letter to Duterte, Loida Lewis had said: “There is absolutely no truth to the story given to you by ‘another country’, that I was in any way involved in the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to investigate the Extra Judicial Killings in the Philippines.”
This time, Lewis posted on Facebook: “Since President Duterte has revived his accusations with the same bogus, fake news, I want him to release the so-called telephone conversation I supposedly had regarding ICC case to investigate him. Once and for all, the truth will be known and he should then stop these false allegations against me.
Thank you for sharing this letter until it reaches him.”
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‘Absolutely no truth’ to Duterte yarn on link to ICC case – Loida Nicolas Lewis
In a press conference Thursday, the Philippine Star reported that presidential spokesman Harry Roque said “Fil-Am community leader Loida Nicolas-Lewis is capable of conspiring with the Hague-based court to indict Duterte for crimes against humanity because ‘she’s rich’.”
Duterte threatened to release a transcript of a wiretapped phone conversation involving Lewis — whom he mistakenly referred to as “Loida Reyes” — regarding the ICC’s preliminary examination into Manila’s bloody war on drugs.
