The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the government of giving preferential treatment to former
Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業) and Cheng I Food Co (正義股份) chairman Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) in several food scandals involving his firms, since Wei has been a “faithful supporter” of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Amid the latest tainted oil crisis involving Cheng I, a subsidiary of the Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), many of the businesses involved have been searched, while managers of several companies, including Ting Hsin, have been detained. Yet, so far, Wei has been left out of investigations.
“When investigating tainted cooking oil cases in the past, the prosecutor in charge was quick to apply for detention of Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co (大統長基食品公司) chairman Kao Cheng-li (高振利) and Chang Guann Co (長冠企業) chairman Yeh Wen-hsiang (葉文祥) to prevent them from colluding on testimony and destroying evidence,” DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said yesterday. “However, the prosecutor has yet to call for Wei’s detention.”
“We therefore question if it is because Wei has served as the vice chairman of a business leaders’ support group for Ma during his presidential campaign and has good connections to the government,” Huang said.
Huang said that during the 2012 presidential election, Wei attended meetings by business leaders to voice their support for Ma and was handed an official certificate by Ma appointing him to serve as vice chairman of the National Business and Industrial Leaders’ Support Group for Ma Ying-jeou.
“This shows that Wei may have a better relationship with Ma than Kao and Yeh,” Huang said. “However in a democracy with rule of law, prosecutors should treat all cases the same way, they should not investigate cases selectively or detain people selectively.”
In related news, Huang rejected a message circulating online that accused the DPP of blocking revisions to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品衛生安全管理法) with a legislative vote on Nov. 22 last year.
“The voting was actually on the meeting agenda, not on amendments to the law,” Huang said.
“In fact, at the time, the DPP was voting ‘no’ to a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposal to list amendments to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation the last of all 80 proposals to be discussed,” Huang said. “The KMT’s proposal would not have left the legislature enough time to discuss amendments to the law.”
He said that just before the vote, the KMT rejected a DPP proposal to create a compensation fund for victims of food scandals using penalties from food manufacturers involved.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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