AUGUST 2016
INPUD and ANPUD invite members, allies, and friends to email or telephone their local Philippines consulate or national Embassy. Contact information can be found here.
If telephoning, ask to be put through to their political section (if they have one) or to the consular section.
Be polite – remember you are not trying to convince the person you are speaking with (who may agree with you anyway) – you are ringing to register a statement of concern.
Any hint of lecture, admonishment, or reprimand, will, at the very least, be ignored, and could fuel backlash. Likewise, it is not advised to raise the issue of human rights as – very unfortunately – this has no traction with the current government.
We suggest something along these lines:
“I would like to register a statement of concern from (myself/my organisational) about the extrajudicial killing of people who use or sell drugs in the Philippines.
People who use drugs are human beings. I/We fear for the safety of people who use drugs in the Philippines, for their families and communities, and I am gravely concerned about the impact of such violence on the society of the Philippines as a whole.
Please ask the President to call an amnesty on the killings, and instead to use evidence-based approaches and to focus on health and wellbeing. Thank you.”