Senator Amy Marcos spoke on November 17, the second day of an anti-corruption protest at Christ Church Church in Quirino, and accused her brother, President Marcos Jr., and his family of drug use.
[Reported by this newspaper] On November 17, the second day of a gathering at the Iglesia Ni Cristo, INC church, Senator Imee Marcos took to the podium and accused her brother, President Marcos Jr., his wife Liza, and their children of being drug addicts.
The senator, considered an ally of former President Duterte and Vice President Sarah Duterte, claimed that her brother had been addicted to drugs while their father was still alive, and that his addiction eventually spiraled out of control after he married First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos.
According to the senator, the president’s children, including Sandro Marcos, the representative for the first district of Ilocos Norte, also used illicit drugs.
She further appealed to her brother to “turn back” and undergo drug rehabilitation treatment.
Marcos said, “I beg you, let’s turn back. Take a break. For your health. We can afford to lose you even if you fail and lose your job, but I can’t afford to lose you.”
She said, “Get yourself sorted out. Get treatment. Remove the drugs from your system.” Marcos also expressed concern that unscrupulous individuals were exploiting her brother’s condition to embezzle public funds.
She said the president’s drug addiction was a contributing factor to widespread corruption, particularly in the context of irregularities in flood control projects, which the president himself first exposed after massive flooding in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.
She said, “No accountability, no justice. He no longer knows what’s going on.”
The senator also pledged to stand by her brother and continue to support him throughout his recovery.
She said, “Correct the mistakes. Fight the addiction. And I will never leave you.”
A presidential official said on Monday that Senator Amy Marcos’s allegations that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. used illegal drugs were a “desperate move.”
This is a statement made by presidential press officer Claire Castro after the senator claimed she had known all along that her brother was using illegal drugs.
Castro immediately refuted the allegations via his personal video blog.
Castro questioned, “This is absolutely a desperate act. The peaceful assembly was discussing alleged corruption. What is Senator Amy’s motive for defaming her own brother?”
She was referring to the results of the drug test the president had voluntarily undergone, which had been released by St. Luke’s Medical Center. She showed screenshots of two news reports.
The first report was about St. Luke’s Medical Center refuting doubts about the authenticity of drug tests conducted at its Taguig City branch.
Another report was about a drug analyst at the same hospital who confirmed that his cocaine test result was negative.
Castro added: “Why didn’t she object at the time? We know what her motives were, was it because an investigation into corruption might now be underway and could potentially affect her allies in the Senate?”
