Pan-blue legislators yesterday said they will not approve the bill for the purchase of Patriot missile batteries because the referendum held last year in tandem with the presidential poll was a public "veto" of the purchase.
"President Chen Shui-bian (
"According to the Referendum Law (
The Referendum Law stipulates that any item put to a referendum, after being approved or rejected, can't be put to public vote again for three years. Last year's referendum was declared invalid.
Su said he asked Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (
Lee responded that the ministry did not want to jump into political waters.
"Regardless of the result of the referendum, the ministry would continue to promote the establishment of Patriot missiles for national security," Lee said.
The original NT$480 billion (US$15 billion) special arms procurement bill was designed to purchase three major weapons systems from the US -- eight diesel-electric submarines, 12 P-3C Orion maritime-patrol aircraft and three PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile batteries.
The ministry has proposed transferring NT$133 billion of the budget -- for three batteries of PAC-3 missiles -- to the regular defense budget.
Last year's referendum failed to get the number of voters necessary to make the result valid. Only 45.17 percent of eligible voters took part. The law requires at least 50 percent of those eligible cast votes to make it valid.
The referendum question asked voters to answer yes or no on two questions, one of which referred to boosting missile defenses.
Among the valid ballots, 6,511,216 people voted yes, with 581,413 voting no, or 11 to one in favor of the question.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
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