The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday disputed President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) nomination of Chen Chu (陳菊) as Control Yuan president, saying that her tenures as Kaohsiung mayor and Presidential Office secretary-general were fraught with scandals, making her unfit for a post whose main responsibility is to investigate potential corruption.
Local media cited sources as saying that Chen has been nominated by Tsai to head the Control Yuan, while former Taitung County commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) has been nominated as her deputy.
KMT caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) told a news conference that Control Yuan members during Chen’s time as Kaohsiung mayor from 2006 to 2018 opened 58 cases involving the municipal government, including three impeachment cases and 30 corrective actions.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Notably, the Control Yuan in 2015 censured Chen’s administration over the gas pipeline explosions that tore through the city’s Cianjhen (前鎮) and Lingya (苓雅) districts, killing 32 people and injured 321, Lin said.
In addition, the Control Yuan last year impeached then-Kaohsiung Marine Bureau director-general Wang Tuan-jen (王端仁), who was accused of exerting undue influence to help Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co secure space at Singda Harbor (興達港) to develop minesweepers, he said.
Lin asked if Chen became Control Yuan president, whether investigations into the 58 cases would continue, and if they would, whether Chen would resign if illegalities were found.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has long advocated eliminating the Control Yuan, yet it insists on nominating Chen and 27 Control Yuan members so it can engage in pork-barrel politics one last time, he said.
The KMT caucus would not accept the DPP’s double standards and faulty logic when asked to vote on the nominees in an extraordinary session scheduled to begin on June 29, Lin said.
Chen was Presidential Office secretary-general when a duty-free cigarette smuggling scandal that implicated officials from the office and China Pacific Catering Services erupted, KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said.
Chen might be a fitting candidate to serve as chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission at the Control Yuan — a post that is assumed by the Control Yuan president under the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission (監察院國家人權委員會組織法), Lin Yi-hua said, referring to Chen’s time as a political prisoner after the Kaohsiung Incident.
However, Chen is to date the most unfit candidate for Control Yuan president, she said.
Separately yesteday, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislative caucus also criticized Chen as a possible pick, with TPP caucus convener Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) saying: “This is a blatant political appointment.”
The appointment goes against Tsai’s proclaimed principles of appointing people to government positions who are above party differences, accepting different opinions, appointing individuals from different fields and de-escalating confrontation, Lai said.
“Tsai has not lived up to her goals and has instead become the ‘unreformed KMT’ that she critiques,” Lai said.
TPP caucus deputy convener Chang Chi-lu (張其祿) said that the DPP is contradicting its own political stance that Taiwan move from separation of five powers to separation of three powers.
The DPP should be establishing a parliamentary system and abolishing the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan, instead of handing out positions in organizations it itself calls “unnecessary” and “out-moded,” Chang said.
The government should suspend the nomination process instead of pursuing a controversial nomination, Chang said.
Additional reporting by CNA
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS