Environmentalists protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday, accusing the government of not developing green and alternative transportation methods in the east of the country as promised while moving ahead with the controversial Suhua Freeway under the table.
The protest came just days before the Global Day of Action against global warming on Dec 6.
Chanting slogans such as, “December 6th, Taiwan be cool” and “Drive less, fight global warming,” Society of Wilderness spokesperson Tony Chou (周東漢) told reporters: “We all thought the Suhua Freeway issue was closed, but in reality it is still very much alive.”
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The disputed project, proposed more than a decade ago, was halted on April 25 when it failed to pass the Environmental Protection Administration’s environmental impact evaluation.
The project was returned to the ministry, which means that if the ministry wanted to go ahead with the project (pending Cabinet approval), it would have to begin a new environmental review process.
The protesters were angered by the ministry’s proposed budget for next year, which is due to go through a legislative review process between now and January, Chou said.
“While not a single dollar has been allocated for the purchase of new trains for the east coast and there has been no mention of the Suhua Freeway alternate route that Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) spoke about earlier, a budget for the Suhua Freeway has been listed from now until 2014, amounting to about NT$93 billion [US$2.8 billion],” Chou said.
Chou was referring to Liu’s announcement in early July that the government planned to construct “an alternative road” to the Suhua Highway connecting Nanao (南澳) in Ilan County and Hoping (和平) in Hualien County. The announcement led environmentalists to accuse the government of playing name games, especially after Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said soon afterwards that the alternative route would be “of freeway standard” but would not be the Suhua Freeway.
“There is only a brief mention of an ‘improvement plan’ for the Suhua Highway, with a budget of about NT$30 million,” Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said.
“To get the NT$93 billion budget for the freeway, the ministry will take NT$7 billion from its budget, request NT$20.4 billion from the national budget, while getting the remaining NT$65 billion from selling government bonds and going into debt,” Pan said.
“This is an act that would leave a heavy debt for generations to come,” he said.
However, national highway construction section chief Lan Wei-gung (藍維恭) said yesterday that it was necessary to list the freeway project in the budget because some accounts for the project had yet to be formally closed.
It was “like a company would list its losses on its books,” he said.
“This is just like any company’s accounts book … The Suhua Freeway had been going on for many years. It went through a formal budget review and bidding process, so the books must reflect the activities because some of the accounts have not yet be settled,” he said.
Budgets were planned for the freeway until 2014, but that does not mean that it would happen now, he said.
“From what we can see now, it would be impossible for the Suhua Freeway to be allocated funds in the 2010 budget book,” he said.
As for the improvement plan for the Suhua Highway, Lan said it was written in the budget book to offer legislators alternative options to the freeway or its alternative route.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and