Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers expressed frustration yesterday over the lack of coordination in the government’s post-Typhoon Morakot relief efforts after taking part in relief work in the south over the past week.
KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝), who worked in flooded areas in Pingtung, said the government’s clean-up and reconstruction work had been “chaotic.”
Liao said the Environmental Protection Administration and the Department of Health should dispatch officials to stay in the devastated areas to supervise relief efforts instead of holding meetings with local government officials and then leaving.
While the Ministry of National Defense has deployed troops to help in Pingtung, no senior officials have been put in charge of personnel coordination and resource distribution, Liao said.
She said she hadn’t been able to get help from the Water Resources Agency’s river management offices when she asked them to provide waders, disinfectants or help removing sand from fish ponds or from other agencies she contacted.
KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said many of her colleagues had encountered similar problems, leaving them feeling that they had only their colleagues or their own connections to rely on.
Lo said she had managed to deliver 2,000 rubber shoes to the south and buy face masks and gloves through the Certified Public Accountants Association, of which she is a senior member.
Lawmakers have also helped raise funds to cover the expenses of volunteers in some areas, she said, adding that she had given more than NT$1 million.
Civic groups have played a leading role, while government agencies were often absent, she said. For example, the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法) says the Ministry of Economic Affairs is in charge of flood prevention, Lo said, “but where has Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) been?”
KMT Legislator Hsiao Ching-tien (蕭景田) said the government’s relief efforts have been noticeable by their absence.
‘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