Allowing casino development in Penghu County would overload the environment while crowding out sustainable tourism, opponents of a county gambling legalization referendum said yesterday, as they voiced concern that next week’s referendum on the issue might pass.
Shouting slogans in opposition to casino development on “beautiful Penghu,” dozens of opponents from “mainland” Taiwanese environmental groups gathered for a Legislative Yuan news conference, which highlighted casino developments’ potential ecological damage to the county.
“To build something as large as a casino within such a small space and then attract such a huge number of people will necessarily affect the neighboring ecology,” Society of Wilderness executive director Liu Yueh-mei (劉月梅) said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“Because Penghu’s population is small, its demand for water — along with the amount of trash and wastewater which must be disposed — have all been extremely small, and the extra water and garbage from the casinos would not be something that we would be able to take care of on our own,” said Hung Yi-mei (洪一梅), who grew up in Penghu and now serves as a board member of the Sea Citizens Foundation (海洋公民基金會), a non-governmental organization in Penghu with roots in a successful campaign to halt an earlier 2009 gambling legalization referendum.
The nation is already struggling to come up with alternative methods of waste disposal as Kaohsiung cuts back on providing waste disposal for other counties, Hung said, adding that Penghu has no waste treatment facilities of its own.
She also called casinos a “cancer” which would crowd out ecologically sustainable tourism.
“Even though they say that casinos would develop tourism by sucking in huge crowds, the reality is that most spending would be confined to the casinos, along with their internal restaurants and hotels. Not only will patrons be unlikely to frequent local business, but local firms’ survival space could be negatively affected,” she said.
She also accused the administration of Penghu’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) County Commissioner Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) of bias in not inviting opponents to county-sponsored “explanatory sessions” on the referendum.
Opponents also expressed concern about whether they could prevail.
“This time proponents have spent seven years preparing,” said DPP Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗), a former Green Party activist who participated in the campaign to block the 2009 referendum.
She cited proponents’ recruitment of numerous prominent retired teachers and government officials to advocate for legalization, while using promises of high “feedback money” for residents as a key selling point.
If the referendum passes, further action will be required by the Legislative Yuan before any casinos can be constructed, with no legislative framework currently in place for casino approval and registration.
‘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