The Presidential Office yesterday said that it had launched an inquiry into allegations that one of its officials visited a Taipei guesthouse and that the guesthouse's owner had won a project contract with the office.
The action came in response to a front-page story in the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday, which claimed that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Gao Jyh-peng (
The newspaper said that young women working as escorts had also been invited to the gatherings at the guesthouse.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The newspaper ran pictures of Gao, Yu and Lee each leaving the guesthouse alone before dawn while a series of four pictures showed Kuo giving one woman a ride.
Another picture showed a young woman in the arms of man in a white Mercedes around midnight, but the man was not identified.
A message from the Presidential Office yesterday said that its internal affairs department had launched an investigation into the allegations.
Regarding the allegation that the guesthouse's owner won a project contract with the Presidential Office, the office said its understanding was that everything had been handled in accordance with the Government Procurement Act (
Yu told a press conference yesterday that he had been to the guesthouse five to six times, but he did not do anything illegal there.
Yu said guesthouse owner Tsai Ming-chieh (
"I always left as soon as I got the answers to my questions," he said, adding that the only people at those meetings were himself and Tsai.
Yu said he could only speak for himself and he had no idea what the situation was with others named by the newspaper.
Gao's cellphone was turned off yesterday morning, but he told reporters yesterday afternoon that he only went to the guesthouse to raise campaign funds for DPP Taipei City councilor candidates.
"I can't say that I have never been to places I should not have been to, but I can say I've never done things I shouldn't have done," Gao said.
He said there had not been any escorts when he was at Tsai's guesthouse.
When asked for a response to the story, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Tsai Huang-liang (
Tsai Huang-liang questioned the authenticity of the newspaper's pictures, as none of them showed the four men and the women together.
While saying that he believed Gao and Yu cherished their reputations, he said the party would investigate the allegations. He refused to say whether anyone would be disciplined if the allegations were found to be true.
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
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