While there appear to have been no recent statements from American officials about plans to place nukes in the Philippines, Duterte was on Sunday asked about the possibility during a press conference.
“We do not want it… but I am warning you that if I get hold of hard information that nuclear armaments are brought by you here, I will immediately ask you to go out and I will terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) [with the US] immediately,” he said.
Duterte was meeting the journalists at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City shortly after a ceremony to welcome the arrival of the initial 600,000 doses of Chinese Sinovac vaccine against Covid-19, which had been donated to Manila by Beijing.
“China has been giving us everything, but never asked us for anything,” he said, adding that he earlier assured Beijing that he would not allow US nuclear arms in the Philippines.