MANILA (UPDATE) — On the eve of the release of a crucial International Criminal Court decision that could see former president Rodrigo Duterte and his aides facing an arrest warrant, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping met.

This stirred speculations that Duterte was seeking a safe haven from the ICC, which his former police chief Sen. Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa denied.

"Nagkataon lang talaga na pumunta siya doon," Dela Rosa claimed. "I'm not sure kung inimbitahan siya, basta nagkataon lang ‘yung biyahe niya."

(It was just a coincidence that he went there. I'm not sure if he was invited, his trip was just a coincidence.)

• Bato says won't travel to ICC-member countries if arrest warrant out

According to Chinese officials, Xi had expressed hope during the meeting that the previous Philippine leader would continue to promote "friendly cooperation" between the 2 countries.

For Renato de Castro, who teaches international studies at the De La Salle University in Manila, Duterte's visit could mean 2 things.

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First, the visit was meant as a back-door negotiation to manage the territorial dispute between the 2 nations.

To recall, Duterte had forged friendlier relations with China during his term in favor of economic assistance and investments amid the latter's continuing incursions in the West Philippine Sea.

China and the Philippines are at odds over the South China Sea, where the smaller West Philippine Sea is located, with Beijing claiming sovereignty over almost the entire area despite an international court ruling that its claims have no legal basis.

Second, De Castro said the meeting could indicate Beijing's dissatisfaction with Manila's foreign policy.

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"This could also be a signal to the current president and of course to the current administration that China is not very happy with the turn of events that’s been happening in terms of Philippine foreign policy since last year," De Castro told ANC's "Dateline Philippines."

"Probably sending to the current administration, 'I still have a popular former president within my fold, so watch out regarding what you’ve been doing since last year. It seems that you’re tilting towards my strategic competitor (United States),'" De Castro said.

It was rare, he added, for a Chinese president to meet a former leader of another country. "We might consider this as strange, as kind of unprecedented," he said.

• China's Xi meets with ex-president Duterte in Beijing
• Marcos says Duterte, Xi meeting could help ease PH-China tensions
• Marcos hopes Duterte and Xi tackled issues on West PH Sea during meeting

BACK-CHANNEL TALKS

Meanwhile, academics from the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG) said that Duterte's role in the Marcos administration should only be limited to back-channeling talks.

The group made the assessment days after Duterte's meeting with Xi.

"The reality of presidential politics, that kind of scenario is very unlikely, I think," CENPEG Executive Director Temerio Rivera said.

"By allowing somebody like Duterte or even GMA (House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) earlier to play a significant role, will undermine that role. It will not be natural for any president to do that," Rivera added.

Still, such practice does not prevent any chief executive from utilizing a former president, he said.

"That does not prevent, of course, other players from using that as an informal channel. Informal," he added.

Professor Bobby Tuazon, CENPEG's director for policy studies, said that he was expecting a future Duterte-Xi meeting.

Both Tuazon and Rivera believe that Duterte will not meet Xi without the prodding or blessing from Philippine leaders.

"I don't think the former president will go to Beijing without being requested from within the Philippines," Tuazon said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he knew Duterte would visit China and expressed his hope that the recent meeting tackled the issues on the West Philippine Sea.

Tuazon believes it was Arroyo who made such a request to Duterte.

The visit, he said, may be aimed at appeasing and assuring a "concerned" Xi that the Philippines remains an ally of China amid the Taiwan Strait issue.

Rivera likewise sees China's concern over the Marcos administration's policy that seems to lean more toward the United States.

"The visit of president Duterte while it was not official, was a very convenient way to signal to the Philippines and to Bongbong Marcos that China is concerned. And even though Duterte is no longer the president... we cannot also deny the fact that he can, for various ways, at the very least, introduce rethinking," Rivera said.

"It is a form of persuasive diplomacy," Rivera said.

Rivera said Arroyo and even Sen. Imee Marcos's seeming support to China also somehow strikes a balance with respect to the Philippines' relationship with the 2 countries.

— with a report from Agence France-Presse