Malacañang on Friday said it had not received any information regarding former President Rodrigo Duterte’s supposed request for asylum in China before his arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said they were only informed of Duterte’s arrival from Hong Kong.
“We had not received such information. That is not the kind of information that comes to the Palace,” Castro told reporters in a press briefing.
Citing a reliable source, a television report on Thursday said Duterte had sought asylum in China but was denied.
According to the report, the source also said Philippine authorities had been preparing for the execution of an ICC arrest warrant and Duterte’s arrest since January under Oplan Tugis, a plan set forth by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG).
On 11 March, Duterte returned to the country after attending campaign sorties for the Partido ng Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan’s (PDP Laban) senatorial slate in Hong Kong.
Upon his arrival at the NAIA, PNP-CIDG chief Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III served an arrest warrant on Duterte inside the aircraft.
Duterte was arrested on charges of crimes against humanity filed by the ICC.
In a Facebook post on Friday, former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque tagged the issue of Duterte seeking asylum in China as fake news.
“China and Hong Kong are not signatories to the 1951 Convention on the Rights of Refugees and Asylum Seekers,” Roque said.