‘Polvoron’ campaign emerges amid Marcos-Duterte political tussle

MANILA, Philippines — Pro-Duterte accounts unleashed a firestorm of hyperpartisan content against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the tail end of 2023, accusing him of abusing illegal substances under the thinly veiled euphemism of "polvoron use.”

From late December 2023 to January 2024, anonymous accounts flooded several social media platforms with hundreds of posts and videos claiming, without proof, that the president had been caught on video using illegal substances and that this would be used to unseat him from office.

Philstar.com’s analysis of the posts during this time indicates this was no random smear campaign against Marcos, and in some cases, his wife First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos. 

While the “polvoron” allegation has been mentioned before, Philstar.com’s monitoring finds that the same 12 Facebook pages repeatedly posted identical videos five times from November to January, all of which aimed to promote the conspiracy that the president has been caught taking illegal substances.

These videos against Marcos were consistently uploaded within seconds of each other and used the same captions to fuel speculation against the president and his family.

Recently viral videos and/or photos of Vice President Sara Duterte and former Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon where they brandished a “polvoron," a Filipino milk candy that turns to powder when crushed, were also repurposed by content creators to fuel unsubstantiated claims against Marcos.

These photos and videos uploaded by hyperpartisan pages have some of the markings of an influence operation that Philstar.com is tracking across all social media platforms, groups and spaces on the internet. 

Several of these posts appeared right after two notable political developments in the second half of 2023: the House’s removal of the vice president's confidential funds in October and former President Rodrigo Duterte's public accusation of corruption against House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Marcos’ cousin in November.

‘Secret’ video allegation

Among the earliest videos that triggered the wave of "polvoron" allegations was a Nov. 18, 2023 YouTube video uploaded by "Bagong Lipunan" that alleged Marcos used illegal substances due to "depression." 

YouTube channel “Bagong Lipunan” claimed that his sources included former President Duterte himself and a person "close" to the Marcos family. This video has garnered 58,000 views as of posting. 

On Nov. 21, 2023, a video of the vice president handing a child a pack of polvoron went viral on TikTok after it was uploaded by her supporter, gaining more than 397,000 views and 28,000 likes as of posting.

In the weeks that followed, several content creators re-uploaded this video on TikTok and other platforms like Facebook and YouTube, and alleged in their captions that Duterte was also taking potshots at Marcos and intentionally referencing the "polvoron" allegation.

On December 27, 12 Facebook pages started the first wave of simultaneously uploading identical videos that alleged Marcos was caught using illegal substances. 

The pages were the following:

• Breaking New Live
• Fan Idol
• Mhome
• Philippine News Live
• Philippines New BBM
• Philippines New Presidente 2022
• Philippines News TH
• Philippines Pinas News TH
• Philippines Trendinh News TH
• Philippines Trendinh News TH.
• Showbiz Fanaticz
• Trending Ni Andres

The first video they posted in the same hour had the exact same caption of: “HALA! ATTY.VIC RODRIGUEZ HAWAK ANG POLVORON VIDEO NI BBM? LIZA NATARANTA NA (ATTY. VIC RODRIGUEZ HAS THE POLVORON VIDEO OF BBM? LIZA PANICKING)? Thank For Watching.” 

Vic Rodriguez is Marcos' former chief of staff who served as his spokesperson during the 2022 presidential elections. He resigned as executive secretary in 2022.

Two days later, the same 12 pages uploaded a new video with the same caption: “HALA! SEN.IMEE PINAGSASALITA NA NG MGA ANAK BBM AT LIZA SUMISINGHOT NG POLVORON (SEN.IMEE HAS BEEN ASKED BY DAUGHTER ABOUT BBM AND LIZA SNIFFING POLVORON)?”

The next day, the same group of Facebook pages uploaded a different video with the caption: “JUSKO PO! POLVORON VIDEO KALAT NA BBM LIZA HINDI NA MAKATULOG? KUDETA NA (POLVORON VIDEO GONE VIRAL, BBM AND LIZA CAN’T SLEEP? COUP D’ETAT COMING)? Thank For Watching”

On January 2, Guanzon posted on her official Facebook page that she was willing to upload a supposed video of a "polvoron session."

Specifically, Guanzon said: “Sakin niyo na ipasa yung video ng polvoron session, ako na mag uupload (Forward the video to me of the polvoron session, and I will upload).”

Days later, on January 4 and 8, the same 12 Facebook pages uploaded two more videos with the following captions:

• “HALA! ROWENA GUANZON ILALABAS ANG POLVORON VIDEO NI BBM? LIZA KABADO NA (COME ON! ROWENA GUANZON WILL RELEASE BBM'S POLVORON VIDEO? LIZA NERVOUS)? Thank For Watching"; and
• "NAKU PO! BBM MAARING MATULAD KAY ERAP KUNG TOTOO ANG POLVORON VIDEO? (BBM CAN BE LIKE ERAP IF THE POLVORON VIDEO IS TRUE?) Thank For Watching”

The videos of these 12 Facebook pages usually garner an average of 1,000 to 8,000 views and tend to attract mixed reactions. While some users appear to echo the same narrative, others emphasize continued support for the president and the UniTeam coalition.

But besides these Facebook pages, several other content creators have also uploaded their own videos or photos on Facebook making the same allegation that there is video evidence of alleged illegal substances in Malacañang. 

By Philstar.com’s count, at least 280 Facebook posts from November to January referenced the “polvoron” allegations against the president, a good chunk of which aimed to fuel rumors of an alleged secret video. 

Some sample captions include the following: “ilalantad na daw ang polvoron video ni bbm within 3months pag hindi nag resign ???? (the polvoron video of BBM will be exposed in three months if he does not resign)” “ARE YOU NOT BAFFLED WITH THE LACK OF ANY REACTION FROM BBM, LIZA, OR FROM PCO REGARDING THE POLVORON VIDEO? ???? ????.”

Meanwhile, other posts and comments dismissed the “polvoron” video as a coordinated effort to ruin the president’s reputation.

— with reports by Ralph Villanueva

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This alert/analysis/series was produced with support from an Internews initiative aiming to build the capacity of news organizations to understand and monitor disinformation and influence operations in the Philippines.