Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has accused his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, of being a drug addict and raised the prospect of removing him from office.
The outburst brings a long-rumoured split between the two into the open.
Mr Duterte, who became notorious for the harsh crackdown that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead, claimed in his speech without offering any evidence that Mr Marcos was once on a law enforcement list of suspected drug users.
“You, the military, you know this, we have a president who’s a drug addict,” Mr Duterte said to cheers from a few thousand supporters in his southern home region of Davao city.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said Mr Marcos was never on such a list, contrary to Mr Duterte’s claim.
The President laughed off Mr Duterte’s allegations in comments to reporters before flying to Vietnam for a visit. Mr Marcos said he would not dignify the accusations with an answer, but claimed his predecessor is using fentanyl, a powerful opioid.
In 2016, Mr Duterte said he had used fentanyl in the past to ease pain caused by injuries from a motorbike accident. His lawyer, Salvador Panelo, said that Mr Duterte stopped taking fentanyl before he became president in 2016.
“I think it’s fentanyl,” Mr Marcos said.
“Fentanyl is the strongest painkiller that you can buy. After five, six years, it has to affect him, that’s why I think this is what has happened.”
Duerte and Marcos Jr