Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥), who on Wednesday tendered his resignation over an oil spill incident, was hospitalized yesterday after suffering from a heart condition during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Shortly after a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee began, Wei started experiencing chest tightness and the condition persisted after he took medication, so he went to the Legislative Yuan’s infirmary, National Taiwan University Hospital said.
Wei showed abnormal electrocardiogram readings and was diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome and suspected acute myocardial infarction, and was immediately transported to the hospital.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The hospital said that Wei had a history of heart disease and was conscious upon arriving at the hospital, adding that he was taken to the intensive care unit for suspected acute coronary syndrome.
A cardiac catheterization was performed in the afternoon, and it would take a few days for Wei to recover, the EPA said.
According to EPA staff, Wei has been working overtime lately because of two ships running aground in Penghu County and New Taipei City’s Shimen District (石門), which resulted in an oil spill and sparked criticism of the EPA’s handling of the incidents.
Wei on Wednesday tendered his resignation after a legislative hearing, in which Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) criticized the EPA’s management of the grounded container ship off Shimen, as the oil leaking from the vessel polluted the coastline.
Wei said he was resigning to take responsibility for the pollution, rather than acting on impulse, but added that he would continue to attend legislative sessions until the premier accepts his resignation.
“As the legislature has lost confidence in the EPA’s capabilities, I have no reason to stay at the position; I am stepping down to shoulder political responsibility,” he said.
Premier Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday visited Wei at the hospital, saying that he would not accept Wei’s resignation since the minister has duly performed his duty over the grounding incidents.
Meanwhile, the EPA’s Department of Water Quality director Yeh Chun-hung (葉俊宏) said that crews have removed two-thirds of the diesel and crude oil on the container ship, and the pumping operation is expected to be finished today at the earliest.
Lubricating oils remaining on the ship would be drained later, while there is no sign that hazardous chemicals stored in nine containers on the ship would leak, Yeh said.
The Minister of Transportation and Communications said it requested the ship owner to remove all 385 containers from the ship before the flood season.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
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