President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signaled that his strained relationship with Senator Imee Marcos remains far from repaired, taking an unusually candid stance after she accused members of the First Family of using illegal drugs during a massive Iglesia ni Cristo rally on November 17.
The president, responding to questions at Malacañang on Monday, said relatives and long-time friends had grown concerned about the senator’s recent behavior. He recalled that she had stopped attending the Marcos clan’s regular weekly lunches in the palace last year, a change that had already raised questions within the family.
Pressed about his reaction to her public allegations, the president paused for several seconds before addressing the subject. “It’s anathema to me to talk about family matters generally in public. We do not like to show our dirty linen in public,” he said. He later added, “And the reason that is… is because the lady that you see talking on TV is not my sister. And that view is shared by our cousins, our friends.”
Marcos noted that he had no plans to speak with her. “We no longer travel in the same circles, political or otherwise. So, no,” he said when asked if he intended to reach out.
Senator Marcos quickly fired back online. “Bongbong, this is me. You are seeing all sorts of things now, Ading,” she wrote on Facebook. “Prove me wrong. I want to be wrong.”
Her remarks at the INC gathering revived long-running rumors about her disputed parentage, which the president’s comment was widely seen to reference. In response, she challenged the First Family to undergo a hair follicle drug test, offering to take a DNA test in return to affirm her lineage as a daughter of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and former first lady Imelda Marcos.
The dispute also drew in the next generation. House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos earlier criticized his aunt’s statements, calling them “not the conduct of a true sibling.”
Malacañang has rejected her claims outright, denying assertions that the president had a history of drug use or that such allegations were tied to corruption controversies facing the administration. It also dismissed calls from critics aligned with the Duterte camp for Marcos to undergo another drug test.
Marcos previously took a drug test in 2021 while running for president after then-President Rodrigo Duterte insinuated that one of the candidates was using cocaine. St. Luke’s Medical Center later confirmed that he tested negative, and separate police laboratory testing the same year showed he was also negative for methamphetamine. In January 2024, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency issued a statement reiterating that the president had never been on its drug-watch list. “The PDEA asserts that President Marcos Jr. is not and was never in its watchlist,” it said.
Senator Marcos’ appearance at the INC rally reinforced her growing political distance from her brother. Since the resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte as education secretary in June last year, she has increasingly aligned herself with the Duterte camp and publicly opposed the enforcement of the ICC arrest warrant on the former president during the midterm campaign.
Despite the backing of the vice president and the INC, she ended the race at the bottom of the 12 winning senatorial candidates.
