Polvoron video

The polvoron video is a video published on July 22, 2024, purportedly depicting Philippine President Bongbong Marcos snorting cocaine. The video has been found to be a deepfake by both Philippine government law agencies and independent fact checking bodies.

Background

The polvoron video depicts a man, allegedly President Bongbong Marcos sniffing a white powdery substance. This substance is suggested to be cocaine, or euphemistically polvoron.

History

Claire Contreras, a vlogger who goes by the name Maharlika would first tease the existence of the polvoron video during a livestream on the Facebook page Boldyakan during the evening of July 21, 2024. Harry Roque in Canada asserted that the video to Hakbang ng Maisug supporters asserted the upcoming vidoe is "not AI" and "underwent authentication".

Maharlika would published the video abroad on July 22, 2024, at the Hakbang ng Maisug event in Los Angeles, California on the same date the 2024 State of the Nation Address was set to be held in Quezon City. The event was attended by allies of former president Rodrigo Duterte such as Roque himself and former candidate for senator, Glenn Chong

On August 25, Maharlika published a higher quality version of the video on her vlog.

Verification

Government agencies

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos ordered the creation of a special task force to investigate the video. He would chide the release of the video's release in the United States questioning the video's propagators' credibility viewing it as a way to avoid liability in Philippine law.

On July 23, 2024, the Cybercrime Offices of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police released their findings that the man of the video is "definitely not" President Marcos, noting the discrepancies of the facial features of the man in the video and Marcos.

News organizations

Rappler ran a copy of the video under SensityAI which gave a result that there is 81.8% confidence that a face swap was done on the video, publishing a fact checking article on July 25, 2024.

Vera Files published their own fact checking on September 16. The organization had the video verified, including the higher quality version published on August 25, with the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) of the India-based Misinformation Combat Alliance which analyzed the video, highly suspecting it to have been manipulated through artificial intelligence. DAU says that there are indications that a face swap manipulation was done.

The Presidential Communications Office released a statement reaffirming the statement that the video is fake citing the Vera Files report.

Maharlika

Maharlika would discuss the verification process she made on the video on August 12 on her vlog. She did not specify any specific program or mention the identities of the forensic experts she consulted with. Maharlika disputed the findings of Philippine government agents. In an appearance at Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) she said she sought evidence the video was "untampered" showing a printed report confirming such from five test from an unknown source.

Legal actions

In September 2024, Harry Roque has been reported to face a pending disbarment petition filed by former NTC head, Melvin Matibag. Matibag refused to divulge any details but cited Roque's social media posts that included a polvoron video of President Bongbong Marcos allegedly snorting drugs. Roque stated his social media post of the video "is protected by free speech under the privilege doctrine" and added that Marcos has not admitted nor denied the allegations in the video.