Gretchen Barretto has confirmed Raymart Santiago’s allegations that his wife, Gretchen’s sister Claudine Barretto, has been using drugs.

In a statement sent to PEP.ph, the actress recalled that her father, Mike Barretto, had pretended to suffer from a heart attack in January 2011 in a ruse to get Claudine confined at the basement of Medical City to be treated for her “severe drug abuse and mental condition.” Claudine then went to Thailand the following month to continue her treatment at a private clinic, and she underwent counseling when she returned to the Philippines.

However, Gretchen went on to reveal that Mike had called for a family meeting on December 21, 2012 to say that Claudine needs to be confined at the basement of the hospital for a minimum of 12 to 18 months. “It was a choice of confining her at the basement or seeing her in the morgue at the rate she's going,” she wrote. “I remind him again that I am just repeating exactly what he said then. My father told us that his choice was to see Claudine in the basement and, of course, we all wanted the same thing.”

Gretchen then said that her parents weren’t capable of dealing with the reality of Claudine’s problem.

“Sadly, we now recognize that any effort to help her was doomed to fail because my parents are not capable of dealing with the truth,” she wrote. “We did not reject our parents. They rejected us. Sadly, they mistake our concern as envy, and our refusal to support their lies as betrayal.”

“Whether they believe it or not, we care for Claudine,” she continued. “However, the Claudine that we see and experience now is not the Claudine we used to know… In a perfect world when I dream everything and anything is possible, I'd like to believe that I can see the vibrant, loving, caring, generous, and beautiful Claudine, come back.”

“I believe that it is up to my parents to own up to the truth to make this possible,” she concluded. “We hear Claudine's cry for help. Why can't you?”

(Photo courtesy of PEP.ph)