The Taiwan High Court was yesterday rebuffed by the legislature over a request to view legislative footage the court says it needs for an investigation into an alleged bribery case involving eight former lawmakers across party lines.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the Taiwan High Court should review the Gazette for information rather than asking the legislature to provide footage.
“Official records of all proceedings are in the Gazette,” he said.
The high court recently sent a letter to the legislature, in which it asked the lawmakers to provide it with legislative footage of two meetings held in 1997 at which the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法) was deliberated.
The legislature’s rules for the lending of video footage and audio recordings of proceedings is that the materials cannot leave the legislature without legislative consent, which in turn warrants a review of the request.
At yesterday’s legislative session, lawmakers deferred a discussion of the request to a later date, based on a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) proposal, which it said was in accordance with established practice.
This was the first time a legislative session dealt with such a request because the legislature’s Procedural Committee has never previously placed similar requests on the agenda.
“This occurred because any decision needs to take into account how granting the request might affect the autonomy of the legislature” Wang said, adding that he would hold a meeting of all parties involved to discuss the matter.
In 2010, the Taiwan High Court found the eight former lawmakers guilty of accepting bribes from the National Chinese Herbal Apothecary Association in 1998, in return for their endorsement of an amendment to Article 103 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法) that would restore the right of herbalists to issue medical prescriptions.
The lawmakers involved were former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Hsu Shu-po (許舒博), Liao Fu-peng (廖福本) and Cheng Horng-chi (陳鴻基), former DPP legislators Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅), Chiu Chui-chen (邱垂貞), Jao Yung-ching (趙永清) and Lin Kuang-hua (林光華), as well as former People First Party legislator Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國). They were sentenced to prison terms of between seven to 10 years.
The case remains on the docket because the Supreme Court overturned the high court’s ruling and ordered that the case be retried.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS