Senator Imee Marcos accused her brother, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., his wife and their children of longtime illegal drug use, including cocaine, in a fiery speech Monday night, Nov. 17, 2025, at a massive rally organized by the influential Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) church.

Speaking to a crowd of about 650,000 at Manila’s Quirino Grandstand on Nov. 17, 2025 Imee Marcos said the family had known about the President’s alleged drug habit since childhood.

“Ever since Bongbong and I were kids, the family already knew about him,” she said in Filipino, using the president’s nickname.

She claimed the alleged addiction worsened after his marriage to First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, whom she accused of also using drugs.

Senator Imee Marcos alleged the couple and their friends spent “whole days drinking and using cocaine, together with the wife and barkada.

The senator extended the accusations to the president’s sons, including Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, and claimed members of the first family had offered drugs to her own children.

Senator Imee Marcos said she once encouraged her brother to marry Araneta-Marcos in hopes it would stabilize him, but later regretted it.

She also said she pleaded with then-President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016 to remove Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from a narcotics watch list, arguing users should be rehabilitated rather than targeted.

The allegations signal a deepening public rift in the powerful Marcos family, which returned to the presidency in 2022 after decades in the political wilderness following the 1986 ouster of their father, dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Senator Imee Marcos has increasingly aligned with allies of the Duterte family amid a feud between the president and Vice President Sara Duterte.

Malacañang quickly rejected the claims as baseless and politically motivated.

Presidential spokesperson Claire Castro cited negative drug tests Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took voluntarily in 2021, during his presidential campaign, for cocaine and methamphetamine.

“This is definitely a desperate move,” Castro said. “What kind of sister publicly slanders her own brother?”

On Tuesday, Sandro Marcos denied the allegations, calling his aunt’s remarks “dangerously irresponsible.”

The rally, billed as a call for transparency and anti-corruption, culminates a strained ties between the administration and the Iglesia ni Cristo, a powerful voting bloc.