The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called on the two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators charged with health insurance fraud to quit the party and return the money they are alleged to have taken within three months.
DPP legislators Peter Lin (林進興) and Chiu Yeong-jen (邱永仁) were suspended from the party on Wednesday soon after they were indicted by the Tainan District Public Prosecutor's Office for health insurance fraud.
Prosecutors charged Lin, owner of the Peter Lin Hospital in Kaohsiung, with defrauding the Bureau of National Health Insurance of NT$190 million (US$5.8 million) by making false insurance claims, and Chiu, who runs the Yeong-jen Hospital, also in Kaohsiung, of making NT$110 million through similar means.
The two legislators could receive five-year prison terms if found guilty.
"The bureau should apply to the court for provisional seizure of their property. If the two legislators fail to return the money, the DPP should take full responsibility," KMT caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said yesterday.
DPP caucus members agreed that the party hadn't gone far enough when disciplining the two legislators, with caucus whips Chen Chin-Jun (陳景峻) and Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) asking for them to be expelled.
"There are very negative connotations to this issue -- while the health insurance bureau remains heavily in debt, two DPP legislators are busy defrauding it. Will the public be willing to accept just a suspension?" Chen said.
Meanwhile, Hou An Hospital, a hospital in Tainan owned by DPP Legislator Hou Shui-sheng (侯水盛) has also been accused of similar health insurance fraud.
The Tainan District Prosecutors Office sent police into the hospital on Wednesday. Officers confiscated patient's medical records and issued three of the hospital's nursing staff with subpoenas.
Hou yesterday protested the actions of the police, accusing them of cooking up charges against him before having any evidence of fraud.
ACCESS DENIAL: Beijing would likely take formation in the Philippine Sea, outside Taipei’s missile range, while its forces on the east would be a deterrent to foreign aid China is increasingly likely to employ a strategy of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) around Taiwan, which would use three carrier groups, a report from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. When China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, is completed next year, China would have three carriers, which would likely be used to surround Taiwan and implement an A2/AD strategy, it said, adding that efforts to strengthen China’s two other carriers — the Liaoning and the Shandong — appear to corroborate this. In the quarterly report, the council cited declassified documents from the Ministry of National Defense that categorized China’s carriers as
Two German warships are awaiting orders from Berlin to determine whether they would be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait next month, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing, a German commander said. While the US and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the Strait since 2002. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km waterway that divides the two sides. Taiwan strongly objects to these claims, saying only its people
Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday called for more international backing for Taiwan and a coordinated pushback against China’s claims over the nation. “The United States should elevate Taiwan on the world stage. You should no longer be silenced in global affairs,” Haley told an audience at the Ketagalan Forum, a Taipei conference focused on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. She called for Taiwan to become a full member of the UN, even though it is being blocked by China from representation in international bodies. While the US does not formally recognize Taiwan, it is the nation's strongest
China sent 50 military planes and vessels to the vicinity of Taiwan in the 24 hours starting at 6am on Friday, while President William Lai (賴清德) was visiting Kinmen for the first time since taking office in May to mark the 66th anniversary of the 823 Artillery Bombardment. Flight paths released yesterday by the Ministry of National Defense showed that 38 military aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the highest number recorded in recent weeks. The figure included 32 that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension. Of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft