The case of a former National Communications Commission (NCC) official found to have caused a forest fire last year has been turned over to the Disciplinary Court after he was on Monday impeached for tainting the reputation of the government and public officials.
Eleven Control Yuan members voted unanimously to impeach former NCC senior specialist Joseph Chiao (喬建中) during a review of the case, the Control Yuan said in a statement.
Chiao, who had been suspended since he was indicted in August last year for contravening the Forestry Act (森林法), was then referred to the court that governs disciplinary action against the nation’s civil servants.
Photo courtesy of the Chiayi Forest District Office
The court must determine his punishment after he was found to have lied to police about his role in a fire that started on May 16 last year and burned nearly 80 hectares of forest in Yushan National Park over 12 days, causing damages of more than NT$200 million (US$6.99 million at the current exchange rate).
An investigation report by the Control Yuan said that Chiao lied to police when he claimed the blaze started after he tripped over a gas stove while cooking breakfast.
Based on evidence collected by firefighters and forestry authorities, Chiao and four others were found to have built an illegal campfire on May 15, and Chiao did nothing to stop the others from cutting branches off trees to start the fire at Dujuan Campground on the Batongguan Traversing Trail (八通關越道路).
Chiao’s attempts to mislead investigators seriously damaged the morale of government officials and undermined the government’s reputation, the Control Yuan report said.
Prosecutors in Nantou County said that the group lit a campfire to cook dinner, ignoring warnings on their park entry permits and at the campground that open fires were prohibited.
Chiao woke up at about midnight and discovered that embers from the campfire had caused a small fire, which he tried to put out before moving his tent away from the area and going back to sleep, prosecutors said.
At about 4am, Chiao again woke up to find that the fire was out of control, at which point he woke up his companions and reported the blaze to the Nantou County Fire Department.
On Aug. 25, the Nantou District Prosecutors’ Office indicted the five for stealing forest products and setting a fire that burned down a forest owned by others.
If found guilty, they could face a up to seven years in jail.
The Forestry Bureau has also sought NT$229 million from the five to compensate for the damage they caused.
From June 2019 to June last year, Chiao submitted 12 applications to enter Yushan National Park and served as a guide on 11 occasions, the Control Yuan said.
From July 2016 to July last year, he applied to the National Police Agency to hike in high mountain ranges across Taiwan, an indication that he was an experienced hiker.
‘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
RSS