MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police has taken steps to take down from social media platforms a viral video supposedly showing President Marcos using illegal drugs, a PNP official said yesterday.
Col. Jean Fajardo, the PNP’s chief public information officer, said the Anti-Cybercrime Group coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications Technology for the possible removal of the video from social media sites such as Facebook.
“We are reminding the public not to share the video because based on initial investigation it is fake,” Fajardo told reporters.
The so-called “polvoron” video showed a man sniffing what appeared to be cocaine. Polvoron is a local pastry made of powdered milk and flour, and individually wrapped in cellophane or paper.
The PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Tuesday presented their findings, in which they concluded the person in the video is not Marcos.
NBI Director Jaime Santiago said they have identified several personalities whom they believe were behind the creation and proliferation of the video and are still gathering evidence.
The video was earlier posted by Claire Contreras, also known as Maharlika, a supporter of Marcos’ predecessor, former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque also posted on his Facebook account photographs of Marcos and the person in the video for comparison.