A video announcement circulating on Facebook claims that all Filipinos aged 15 years old and above must undergo house-to-house drug testing. This is fake and the clip was likely generated using artificial intelligence.
A review of the official website and FB page of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency shows no recent announcement or memorandum circular mandating such a drug testing approach. A quick keyword search on Google also yielded no credible news reports on this.
The earliest copy of the bogus video that VERA Files has tracked down was published on Jan. 8. The clip shows two women alleging:
“Paalala! Lahat ng Filipino ay required na magpa-drug test mula 15 years old pataas at house-to-house ang gagawing drug test para walang makakatakas. Tingnan niyo sa post namin ang mga lugar na uunahing i-drug test. Huwag ipagwalang-bahala. Sa post na ito, i-share para marami ang ma-alerto.”
(Reminder! All Filipinos aged 15 years old and above are required to undergo a drug test, which will be conducted house-to-house so no one can escape. Check our post for the areas that will be prioritized for drug testing. Do not ignore this. Share this post to alert more people.)
No legal basis
Article III, Section 36 of Republic Act. No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, only provides that drug tests should be done by “any government forensic laboratories or by any of the drug testing laboratories accredited and monitored by the [Department of Health] to safeguard the quality of test results.”
There is no provision in the law about mandatory door-to-door drug testing, contrary to what some FB pages are spreading online.
RA 9165 also specifies those who should be subjected to drug tests. These include applicants for drivers’ and firearms licenses; high school and college students; officers and employees of public and private offices; members of the police, military and other law enforcement agencies; those charged with crimes whose penalties are more than six years; and all candidates for public office, whether appointed or elected.
AI-made clip, bogus links
AI detection tool Hive Moderation flagged the video as 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. One red flag in the clip was the mispronunciation of the Filipino word “makakatakas” by one of the women announcers.
The watermark of Google’s AI video tool, Veo, appears on the lower right corner of the clip but was posted by the FB pages without a disclaimer or label indicating it was AI-made.
Instead, the captions only contained two links that were supposed to lead netizens to the notice and list of areas where the drug testing would be conducted. The bogus links are bait to bring people to several product pages on two online shopping sites.
CHR: House-to-house drug testing unlawful
In 2017, VERA Files reported house-to-house drug testing being done by the police in Payatas, Quezon City, using “do-it-yourself drug testing kits.”
The Commission on Human Rights said that such practice “runs contrary” to RA 9165, noting that “from a human rights perspective, there is a violation of the presumption of innocence.”
Published by FB pages Nagkakaisang Pilipino TV Newsline (created on Nov. 25, 2025), Edukasyon Newsline Updates (Sept. 12, 2025), and Malasakit News: Balitang Sapat, Serbisyong Totoo (Jan. 8, 2026), the five posts carrying the AI-generated video advisory have collectively amassed 633,400 views, 9,026 reactions, 1,088 comments and 6,068 shares as of writing.
