Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday urged their pan-blue counterparts to restore the arms purchase budget to station anti-missile defense systems in central and southern Taiwan.
DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) told a press conference that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) legislators were ignoring the needs of people in central and southern Taiwan because they canceled the budget of purchasing Patriot PAC-3 to be stationed in the areas early last month.
The budget, totaling NT$11.3 billion (US$349 million), would allow anti-missile defense systems to be established in central and southern Taiwan in response to China's growing military threat against the nation.
Lai said pan-blue lawmakers should not have only approved the budget of upgrading the Patriot PAC-2 in northern Taiwan.
Based on graphics shown by DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), the nation currently only has anti-missile defense systems with Patriot PAC-2 in northern Taiwan.
Stationing such systems in central and southern Taiwan would better protect industrial assets by up to 60 percent and a population of up to 70 percent if China launched missiles against Taiwan, he said.
DPP Legislator Lu Tien-lin (盧天麟), who was also present at the conference, said KMT and PFP legislators canceled the budget "simply based on political interests."
"National defense is public goods," Lu said. "The lives of people in all areas of the nation are of the same value."
Lai said KMT and PFP lawmakers had canceled the budget for the reason that arms procurement was not approved by the majority of the country in the referendum held in 2004.
He added that this reason would become "invalid" in three months because the result of the referendum can only be effective for three years, as stipulated in the Referendum Law (公民投票法).
He suggested the budget be approved under the condition that the procurement will not begin until next March, by which time the referendum result will no longer apply.
In related news, the long-stalled supplementary budget for the purchase of US arms was again blocked in the legislature's Procedure Committee.
Legislators also decided not to review a number of controversial bills, including a pan-blue proposal to reinstate an 18 percent special interest rate on savings for retired civil servants, military personnel and teachers in yesterday's session.
They also called off the session on Friday, the eve of the election.
The regular legislative session, held every Tuesday and Friday, has had the task of reviewing bills since the question-and-answer session with the premier finished on Nov. 24.
Lawmakers, however, have failed to proceed with reviewing bills in the last three sessions.
A proposal to implement cross-strait direct transportation and open charter flights between Taipei Songshan Airport and Hong Kong and Macau -- also regarded as controversial bills -- were put onto the legislative agenda for next Tuesday's session.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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