--- description: Rodrigo Duterte is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Caesar Gaviria wrote about the President of the Philippines. title: Rodrigo Duterte by Caesar Gaviria: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e45a3dd28a57904/6988c3430a4a227cf39cdc15/time-100-2017-rodrigo-duterte-philippines.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Rodrigo Duterte by César Gaviria  MANILA, PHILIPPINES - MAY 01: Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a labor day campaign rally on May 1, 2016 in Manila, Philippines. Duterte, a tough-talking mayor of Davao in Mindanao has been the surprise pre-election poll favourite pulling away from his rivals despite controversial speeches and little national government experience. Opinion polls has shown Mr Duterte has maintained his lead with 33 percent support in the Philippines as Senator Grace Poe looks at impossible odds, with only 22 percent supporting her. The Philippine presidential campaign ends on May 7 with elections slated for May 9 and features 5 presidential candidates vying for the top post. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images) MANILA, PHILIPPINES - MAY 01: Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a labor day campaign rally on May 1, 2016 in Manila, Philippines. Duterte, a tough-talking mayor of Davao in Mindanao has been the surprise pre-election poll favourite pulling away from his rivals despite controversial speeches and little national government experience. Opinion polls has shown Mr Duterte has maintained his lead with 33 percent support in the Philippines as Senator Grace Poe looks at impossible odds, with only 22 percent supporting her. The Philippine presidential campaign ends on May 7 with elections slated for May 9 and features 5 presidential candidates vying for the top post. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images)Photograph by Dondi Tawatao—Getty Images “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there are 3 million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ President, has said. His approach is as ill considered as his grasp of history (more than half of Hitler’s 11 million victims were Jewish). Since Duterte’s inauguration last year, some 7,000 people have been killed. His ironfisted strategy alarms governments, human-rights organizations and faith-based groups while winning high approval ratings at home. When I was President of Colombia, I was also seduced into taking a tough stance on drugs. But after spending billions, I discovered that the war was unwinnable and the human costs were devastating. The cure was infinitely worse than the disease. There are solutions that work. Duterte could start by treating drugs as a health, human rights and development issue. He could prosecute the most violent criminals and provide treatment for users rather than condemn them to prison, or worse. There will always be drugs in the Philippines, whether the President likes it or not. The tragedy is that many more people are likely going to die as he learns this lesson. _Gaviria was President of Colombia from 1990 to 1994_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736340/rodrigo-duterte/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736340/rodrigo-duterte/"},"headline":"Rodrigo Duterte","datePublished":"2017-04-19T18:08:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:25.316Z","description":"Rodrigo Duterte is on the TIME 100 2017 list. 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