The government could seek a constitutional interpretation if lawmakers vote down its motion to reconsider legislative reform bills today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.
Cho made the comments during a session at the Legislative Yuan on the eve of today’s floor vote on the motion, which is expected to be rejected by the opposition parties’ combined majority.
The legislature is urged to give serious thought to discussing the merits of the bills and ensure their consistency with other legislation and its acceptability among Taiwanese, he said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The bills would amend the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Criminal Code, authorizing lawmakers to call private citizens and officials to testify at investigative hearings or face fines and — in the case of officials — jail time.
The government does not rule out seeking a constitutional remedy to overturn the laws should the Legislative Yuan insist on passing them, Cho said, adding that officials would make the move after consulting lawyers and academics.
The remedies include asking the Constitutional Court to rule on the legislation and calling for a temporary injunction to suspend promulgation until judges settle the matter, he said.
Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) said the bills are an overreach, as the legislature’s ability to conduct investigations is a subsidiary power and must abide by Constitutional Interpretation No. 585.
The interpretation stipulates that the Legislative Yuan may not extend its investigative power to a matter “related to the independent exercise of powers by an organ of the state ... guaranteed by the Constitution.”
“An executive chief, by the authority inherent in his or her executive powers, is entitled to decide not to make public any information that may affect or interfere with the effective operation of the executive branch,” it says.
The bills broaden the legislature’s power beyond its constitutional scope and empower lawmakers to arbitrarily impose penalties on private citizens for refusing to comply with their demands to testify, Cheng said.
The ministry deems the proposed laws to be “profoundly inappropriate” and believes their promulgation would lead to “social upheaval,” he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said the bills would enable lawmakers to impose penalties on officials for the crime of “counter interpellation,” a word that does not exist in legislative rules or law books.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers gave the phrase varying and mutually exclusive definitions, including providing an irrelevant answer, responding to a question with a question and being mean, she said during the session.
DPP Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that the bills’ provisions authorizing fines of up to NT$100,000 for people who refuse to testify dwarfs the punishment for not appearing before a court after being served with a subpoena, which carries at most a NT$30,000 fine.
KMT Legislator Wang Yu-min (王育敏) said that the government had given “conflicting” statements, as Cho had previously voiced support for legislative reforms.
Cho’s comments suggesting that the amendments lacked restrictions were incorrect, as hearings could only be held on “important matters concerning the public,” Wang said.
The amendments merely sought to address the long-standing problem of insufficient oversight of the executive branch, she added.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS