Claire Eden Contreras

The polvoron video is a video published on July 22, 2024, purportedly depicting Philippine President Bongbong Marcos snorting cocaine. The video has been found to be deepfake by both Philippine government law agencies and independent fact checking bodies.

Background The polvoron video depicts a man, allegedly President Bongbong Marcos sniffing a white powdery substance. This substance is suggested to be cocaine, or euphemistically polvoron.

History Claire Contreras, a vlogger who goes by the alias "Maharlika" first teased the existence of the polvoron video during a livestream on the Facebook page Boldyakan during the evening of July 21, 2024. The event was attended by allies of former president Rodrigo Duterte such as Roque himself and former candidate for senator, Glenn Chong

News organizations Rappler ran a copy of the video under a tool called SensityAI which gave a result that there is 81.8% confidence that a face swap was done on the video, publishing a fact checking article on July 25, 2024.

Maharlika Maharlika discussed the verification process she made on the video on August 12 on her vlog. She did not specify any specific program or mention the identities of the forensic experts she consulted with. Maharlika disputed the findings of Philippine government agents. In an appearance at Apollo Quiboloy-owned Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) she said she sought evidence the video was "untampered" showing a printed report confirming such from five tests from an unknown source.

The NBI filed charges against Roque and Maharlika for the polvoron video in April 2025. The following are the charges:

Maharlika – Unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterances, inciting to sedition, cyber libel, and computer-related forgery Harry Roque – Inciting to sedition

This followed vlogger Pebbles Cunanan appearance in a House of Representatives Tri Committee inquiry on fake news where the internet personality said she is convinced that Roque spread the video.