Environmental activists filed a petition yesterday asking the Control Yuan to probe a long-disputed resort development in Taitung on what was once one of Taiwan’s most beautiful beaches.
The activists also called for the impeachment of officials they accused of failing to fulfill their duties.
The activists, including representatives of Citizens of the Earth and the Green Party, were making their sixth visit in four years to the Control Yuan, demanding an investigation into the construction of the Miramar Resort Village on Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣).
Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) of Citizens of the Earth said previous petitions went unanswered because the Control Yuan would not take any action until a final Supreme Administrative Court ruling on the case.
In September, the court ordered the developer to halt construction, eight months after it invalidated an environmental impact assessment for the project.
Now the court has ruled the construction illegal, the Control Yuan should begin an investigation as soon as possible, Tsai said. Control Yuan member Chou Yang-shan (周陽山) has accepted the latest petition and promised to start proceedings based on the law, Tsai added.
Environmental protection groups have since demanded the demolition of the buildings already constructed, insisting that a development project of environmental concern should not be allowed to proceed without passing environmental impact assessments by independent professionals.
This demand has been rejected by the Taitung County Government, which said the ruling does not mean that the buildings already constructed should be demolished.
The county government insists the project has followed legal procedure since construction began in 2005 and that it is waiting for a new environmental impact evaluation.
The resort project is a build-operate-transfer project by the county and Urban Development Co.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS