A Filipino blogger has accused former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque of orchestrating the circulation of a controversial video falsely showing President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. using cocaine—dubbed the “polvoron video”—just hours before the 2024 State of the Nation Address.
Pebbles Cunanan, a known pro-Duterte blogger, submitted a sworn affidavit to the House tri-committee investigating the video, saying Roque discussed the clip during a private dinner with fellow bloggers in Hong Kong on July 7, 2024. According to Cunanan, Roque allegedly received a screenshot of the raw video from an unnamed politician and shared it with the group.
“What I also clearly remember from that night was when Attorney Roque said, ‘I’m good at toppling governments,’” Cunanan stated. She interpreted this as a reference to the alleged effort to use the video as part of a destabilization campaign against Marcos.
She further claimed that the video was enhanced to make it appear as though Marcos was taking illegal drugs, and that the doctored version was eventually sent to her. “To my knowledge, the photo that Attorney Roque held during the rally in Hong Kong came from the raw version of the video and had not yet been augmented or edited at that time,” she said. “In the enhanced version that was sent to me… the video was edited and augmented to make it appear as though President BBM himself was in the scene.”
According to Cunanan, the video’s release was strategically timed to stir controversy, saying, “My belief was further strengthened that the video was deliberately circulated by Atty. Roque and some DDS personalities to provoke criticism and controversy against PBBM ahead of his SONA.”
When asked during the hearing why she decided to speak out and sign an affidavit, Cunanan replied, “To right a wrong.”
Fact-checking platform Rappler previously reported that the video had been flagged as “suspicious” by deepfake detection tool Sensity, which noted an 81.8% confidence rate that a faceswap may have been used.
Roque has not responded to requests for comment as of this writing. Meanwhile, Maharlika—a pro-Duterte vlogger also implicated in the alleged campaign—dismissed Cunanan’s claims in a Facebook post: “We know that your lines are from Lizatanas’ script. Don’t you dare, mother. I don’t want you to get hurt,” she wrote, referring to First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos.
