The pan-blue and pan-green camps yesterday reached a consensus to prioritize the government's budget for the 2008 fiscal year on the agenda for this week's plenary session before the legislature goes into recess on Friday.
The budget bill topped the agenda proposals of both camps at a meeting of the legislative Procedure Committee.
The remainder of the agenda was set only after debate and a vote, in which the pan-blue camp's agenda proposal won with a vote of 16-7.
The pan-blue camp placed a draft amendment to the Organic Law of the National Communications Commission (
The draft stipulates that commission members should be nominated by the Cabinet after a review committee, whose members should be recommended by each party according to their number of legislative seats, reviews their qualifications at public hearings. Candidates for the commission should be recommended by the Cabinet and legislative caucuses.
The commission's members have said they will resign at the end of next month.
Other bills prioritized by the pan-blue camp include a draft amendment to the Offshore Islands Development Law (
Topping the Democratic Progressive Party's agenda proposal was a bill allocating funds for anti-flood measures between next year and 2010; a review of the nation's free-trade agreements with El Salvador and Honduras; and an amendment to the Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Law (
In related news, the legislature yesterday passed an amendment to the Criminal Code (刑法), raising the fine for drunken driving five-fold.
Under the amendment, driving under the influence of alcohol or illegal substances is punishable by one-year imprisonment or a fine of NT$150,000.
The amendment, supported by some 50 legislators across party lines, originally sought to introduce jail sentences of between six months and three years for people who repeat the offense more than three times. That part of the bill was dropped during negotiations.
A similar amendment to the Military Criminal Code (
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its