The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday it would invite Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) to brief the legislature on the Cabinet’s post-Morakot reconstruction plan tomorrow, but the idea was rejected by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus during cross-party negotiations.
The Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) at 6pm yesterday also revised the death toll from Typhoon Morakot to 461 dead, 192 missing and 46 injured.
The sharp increase came after the center decided to include the 318 people presumed dead from Siaolin Village (小林) in Kaohsiung County’s Jiasian Township (甲仙).
Earlier yesterday at the DPP caucus meeting, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) had proposed inviting the premier.
Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), head of the DPP Policy Research Committee, said Liu had proven himself incompetent during the disaster relief, adding: “If he doesn’t come, then he can stay out of [the legislature] forever.”
However, the KMT opposed the idea, with KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) saying no premiers in the nation's history had ever briefed the legislature on a single proposed statute.
Liu would still need to report to the legislature and answer questions after the Cabinet detailed its special budget for reconstruction, Lin said.
DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said the DPP regretted the KMT’s refusal to invite the premier but it would not boycott reviews of the Cabinet's special post-typhoon reconstruction proposal.
Meanwhile, legislators have yet to agree on how much should be spent on reconstruction.
The Cabinet finalized the central government budget for the next fiscal year at its weekly meeting last Thursday and suggested seeking a NT$447 billion (US$13.5 billion) loan to provide the money needed for the estimated NT$100 billion needed for post-Morakot reconstruction and other spending.
The DPP wants a minimum of NT$200 billion for reconstruction.
“We have no problems with the government's NT$100 billion budget request ... We are just afraid the central government would give [typhoon-stricken] cities and counties less money because they are governed by the DPP,” Wang said.
Therefore, we hope the budget would exceed NT$200 billion, equal to the budget for reconstruction after the 921 Earthquake,” Wang said.
But Lin said there should be a reasonable rationale if the legislature were to increase the reconstruction budget.
Meanwhile outside the legislature, a number of civil groups criticized the government for trying to push the Morakot-rebuilding plan through by tomorrow, complaining that no typhoon victims had been invited to the Cabinet's Post-Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction Committee's meetings.
Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said the government failed to hold any public hearing before the Executive Yuan approved its proposed statute.
Pan said the various versions proposed by the Cabinet, the KMT and the DPP all focused on how to distribute the NT$100 billion budget but failed to address the liability of government agencies in charge of water resources.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Tsai Chih-hsun (蔡季勳) said legislators should hold the extraordinary plenary sessions in the disaster-hit areas
to hear from Aboriginal communities hurt by the typhoon.
Meanwhile, with the deadline set by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to produce an initial post-disaster reconstruction and victim resettlement in mind, the Cabinet said yesterday that Liu will move down south to speed up the pace of the work.
Liu and senior Cabinet officials from 12 agencies will stay in the disaster zone for one week, starting today, to “exchanges ideas with victims face to face” and “pick up the pace of rebuilding homes,” Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said.
Liu’s popularity dropped to a record low of 11 percent in a survey conducted by local cable station TVBS last weekend, from a 13 percent rating in an Aug. 18 survey.
On a visit to typhoon disaster zones last Friday, Ma said that the government has to make initial progress in reconstruction work within one month of Morakot hitting Taiwan on Aug. 8. He has also previously said that any decision on a Cabinet reshuffle would be made by early next month.
Liu and his Cabinet members will live in a military camp in Cishan Township (旗山), Kaohsiung County, where the Executive Yuan has a disaster-relief command center, Su said.
“Staying in southern Taiwan is a more efficient way to communicate with victims about their needs, with local governments about reconstruction work and on better responses and on procedures to evacuate people living in unsafe places,” Su said.
In related news, Liu yesterday approved a Ministry of Finance proposal for state-owned banks to write off mortgage payments of people whose land and houses were swept away by the floods.
The ministry said 297 households lost their homes and land and 260 of them had mortgages from state-owned banks.
Su said that the government hoped private banks would follow suit and it might earmark a budget to compensate those banks for their losses.
Farm and fishing associations will also write off loans victims took out using fish farms and facilities as security if the farms were washed away.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS