Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday called for other signatories of the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) to join his country in withdrawing from the treaty. Duterte’s comments during a speech to graduating cadets at the Philippine Military Academy in northern Philippines comes after ICC prosecutors last month opened a preliminary examination into the president’s “war on drugs”, which has led to the death of thousands since it began in July 2016.  The mercurial former mayor had initially welcomed last month’s announcement by the ICC of its preliminary examination, but in a 15-page statement, dated March 13, Duterte said he was withdrawing from the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, because of “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” by UN officials.