China says it has not received any asylum application from Duterte

March 24, 2025 - 4:29 PM
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Philippine former president Rodrigo Duterte sits in a chair, in a location given as Villamor Air Base, after being served an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, in Metro Manila, Philippines, in this screengrab obtained by Reuters from social media video on March 11, 2025. (Veronica Duterte via Instagram via Reuters)

 China has not received any application for asylum from Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte and his family, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

Duterte’s trip to Hong Kong was for his personal holidays, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference.

The former president was arrested on March 11 at Manila’s main airport on his arrival from Hong Kong at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of its probe into a “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.

—Reporting by Xiuhao Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman