Duterte says Marcos' denial of viral video 'weakest form of defense,' negative drug test result 'would erase all doubts once and for all'
Rodrigo Duterte said President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s camp denying the viral video where he's supposedly using cocaine is the "weakest form of defense"—even as the former president noted that a negative drug test result "would erase all doubts once and for all."
"First, the Marcos administration's feeble attempt to dismiss the video by simple denial actually reinforces the simmering suspicion of President Marcos' drug addiction," Duterte said in a statement shared by The Freeman on late July 22.
"As any lawyer knows, denial is the weakest form of defense. It has to do better than that."
He criticized how Marcos' camp dismissed the video as "obviously fake" and "again another maliciously crude attempt to destabilize the administration."
"Even the ordinary man on the street knows that the best way to put the issue to rest is for President Marcos to undergo a hair follicle drug test," Duterte noted, adding that a negative test result "would erase all doubts once and for all."
But Marcos, according to Duterte, responded with "feigned laughter, feeble denial or complete silence."
"A drug user for a President is no laughing matter and he should be first one to know that," he said, adding that Marcos' "drug habit poses a clear and present danger."
Duterte pointed out that Marcos' refusal to undergo a drug test is "the best proof not only of the video's authenticity but, worse, his drug addiction."
Duterte also called the Department of National Defense issuing the denial on behalf of Marcos "a slap in the face of every patriotic and honorable soldier who lives by the military's highest code of conduct."
He accused the mainstream media of choosing "to look the other way" instead of "confronting the President about it."
"If subsequent events prove that his drug habits are indeed true, they will forever be haunted by the memory of having contributed to the massive cover-up of his criminal activities," he said.
In the statement, the former president took a swipe at legislators from the Senate and Congress for standing with Marcos "at the time of moral and legal crisis."
"They had this chance to be on the right side of history but they just wasted this chance," he said.
Duterte also praised the Hakbang ng Maisug group for "showing in public what had been long whispered in private."
The viral video in question came hours before Marcos' third State of the Nation Address. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the man in the video is Korean and was released to besmirch Marcos.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos called the video “malicious” and “unfair" and questioned its timing. He also asked the public to look at the shot closely, "particularly the earlobe."
Duterte earlier accused Marcos of using illegal drugs and alleged that the latter was part of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s watch list for narcotics—a claim that PDEA has denied. Marcos later reacted to Duterte’s remark and simply said he didn’t want to “dignify” it.
