The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday called on government agencies to stop infighting and investigate delays in handing out NT$400 million (US$12.4 million) in relief funds raised to help Asian countries devastated by deadly tidal waves in December.
"We understand the main reason for the delay is that it has taken some time for the government to process tax exemption receipts for donors," DPP caucus whip William Lai (
Lai also called for an end to squabbles between former GIO head Lin Chia-lung (
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Echoing Lai's requests, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"The government must make an effort to solve the problem because it has seriously sabotaged the nation's credibility and image," he said.
While Lin blamed the legislature for failing to amend certain regulations to make it easier to allocate the funds, Wang said the government should have studied the law more carefully in the first place and let private charity groups take care of the matter.
"It only shows that the government fails to understand the situation it is in," he said. "It is now too late to find excuses for the mess they have made."
Criticizing the government-initiated fundraising scheme as "crudely planned," People First Party (PFP) caucus whip Sun Ta-chien (
If Hsieh fails to do so, Sun said his caucus will team up with other opposition parties to establish an investigation task force during the next legislative session to find out the truth.
PFP lawmaker Wu Ching-chih (
Meanwhile, Yao and Lin appeared together yesterday and promised that the NT$400 million in donations will be distributed to local charities before Sept. 5.
The idea to raise NT$400 million for tsunami relief originated with Lin, when he was minister of the GIO.
The plan involved seeking donations from the public and distributing them to victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. The charities were to pay tsunami victims from their own money first, and be reimbursed by the public's donations.
However, since the money is still in GIO's bank account, the agency has come under criticism. Some local media even reported that, "Yao has been cleaning up for Lin, who started the project and then left to campaign to work on his campaign for Taichung City."
Yao, however, denied any ill feeling yesterday.
"There is no argument between us," Yao said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS