Man in viral drug video not Marcos—NBI, PNP
Initial investigation of the viral video showing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. allegedly doing drugs reports that the man in the clip is not the country's chief executive.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) revealed the results of its forensic analysis of the video in a news conference on July 23. The agency presented a photo of Marcos' right ear compared to that of the man in the video—the ears do not match, forensic medico-legal division's Dr. Reuel Cruz said.
To get a shot of the ear of the person in the clip, NBI Cybercrime Division Chief Atty. Jeremy Lotoc said they took a screenshot from the circulating video, removed the background of the image, deblurred, and enhanced it with open-source AI programs.
Cruz explained that the tragal notch of Marcos is more embossed than the man in the clip. He added that the president's intertragal notch is larger and his antitragus is more embossed. "This picture is definitely not the same," he said, pointing from Marcos' ear to the one from the video.
Additionally, Cruz said that ears are unique like fingerprints. "The features can be attributed to a specific person and those features are different from each other."
"At the very least, ang Presidente at itong taong allegedly presidente daw, as far as these two are concerned, they have their own unique characteristics of the ear," Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said.
Was it deepfake?
Justice Undersecretary Jesse Hermogenes Andres added that they aren't sure if the video contains a deepfake of Marcos or if it's a video of another person.
"We cannot say whether this is an AI or an actual person. But the fact is, this is the video that is being circulated and definitely, he is not the president," he said.
"Hindi po ito ang Presidente. Ibang tao po ito as far as 'yung tenga pa lang," Abalos added.
The Philippine National Police's own investigation, using Deepware AI detection tool, said that artificial intelligence was used for the video.
It noted discrepancies in facial features of Marcos, including the size of the ears, the shape of the eyes, the shape of the nose, and sideburns.
On July 22, Malacañang called the circulating video "malicious" and "unfair" as it was shared before the President's annual State of the Nation Address.
Former president Rodrigo 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.