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Philippines Senator to form Tibet support group

By Kimberly Jane Tan | GMA News

Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago in a file photo taken in Manila, the Philippines, on 26 September 2007.File photo/AP/Bullit Marquez/The Philippines

A representative of the Dalai Lama has asked Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago to create a Tibet Support Group (TSG) in the Philippines.

In a statement released Thursday, Santiago said Lhakpa Tsokho, the Dalai Lama representative for Japan and East-Asia, wrote her a letter asking her to help create and head TSG initiatives in the country.

“As a long-time advocate for Tibet, I am honoured to accept this request. I am confident that the TSG in the Philippines will be of great help to the cause,” she said.

TSGs espouse the Tibetan people in their struggle for autonomy and religious freedom within the People’s Republic of China.

China claims Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded it in the 1950s.

In a letter dated 25 August, Tsokho said the TSG from the Philippines will be made to participate in the upcoming 6th International Conference of Tibet Support Groups in Haryana, India, from 5 to 7 November 2010.

The conference will be headed by the Indian TSG and will be facilitated by the Department of Information and International Relations of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Santiago said she would launch an online campaign to find participants for the Philippine TSG.

Santiago met Tsokho and the Dalai Lama during the 5th World Parliamentarian’s Convention on Tibet held last November in Rome, Italy.

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Published in GMA News.TV