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 (
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
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