Loida Nicolas Lewis receives Carlos P. Romulo Award for International Achievement
She won for her ‘determination and sincerity to help other people’
“A recipient of the Carlos P. Romulo Award for International Achievement is someone who has helped put the Philippines on the map – someone who is known locally and internationally for their morality and integrity,” said Justice Aurora Navarratte Reciña, president of the United Nations Association of the Philippines and former chairman of the Human Rights Commission. “Mrs. Lewis was chosen because of her determination and sincerity to help other people. She might be based in the U.S., but her heart is definitely with the Philippines.”
Lewis, who graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Law, was the first Asian American to pass the American BR although she was not educated in the United States. After her husband, Wall Street financier Reginald F. Lewis died, she took on the role of chair and CEO of his food enterprise, TLC Beatrice, and successfully ran the company for many years before her retirement.
“I am honored to be chosen to receive the Carlos P. Romulo Award for International Achievement,” said Lewis. “He was a great achiever – president of the UN General Assembly, secretary of Foreign Affairs and a recipient of many honors. To even be considered for the award is something that deeply humbles me and I would like my fellow Filipinos to share in this honor.”
Lewis started the Lewis College in her hometown of Sorsogon, where exceptional children are given the chance at a world-class education. In the U.S., she chairs the U.S. Pinoy for Good Governance which has organized a series of protest actions against China’s alleged “aggressive encroachments” on Philippine waters.
Culturally, she brought the “Noli Me Tangere” to New York City, and it became the first Tagalog opera to be staged in New York. Just last year, she played a pivotal role in the release of Rodelio “Dondon” Lanuza after 13 years of imprisonment in Saudi. Her next endeavor is advocating for the prison release of Paco Larranaga, who was the subject of the film, “Give Up Tomorrow.”
With fellow awardees, as well as Secretary Imelda Nicolas of the Commission on Overseas Filipinos (second from left) and Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras
a deserving recignition for sometone caring for the philippines