Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) yesterday lauded the passage of the first reading of proposed amendments to the Organization Act of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI, 內政部組織法), calling it a significant step forward on an initiative that has been 25 years in the making.
A meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee and Internal Administration Committee earlier yesterday approved a draft restructuring bill that would task the ministry with planning, promoting, overseeing and assisting with local laws and organizations, the measurement and registration of land and buildings, and other affairs.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tang Hui-chen (湯蕙禎) said that a Cabinet-proposed amendment that the ministry should “plan, promote and guide” religious temples and ancestral worship guilds should be expanded to include management and oversight.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Lin told the meeting that the ministry respects the autonomy of religious groups and organizations in line with the Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom and that providing “guidance” instead of “management” would remove misconceptions about government interference in one’s faith or religion.
The Executive Yuan’s proposal also states that the ministry would have five subsidiary agencies — the National Police Agency, the National Immigration Agency, the National Fire Agency, a national land management agency and a national park agency — but legislators were unable to reach a consensus.
New Power Party Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that national park affairs should be managed by the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau, while Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) said that a national park agency should be placed under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
Urging legislators to adopt the Executive Yuan’s version of the bill, Lin said that national park affairs are not limited to resource management, but also operations and management, which the ministry’s many agencies can help the proposed park agency with.
Aside from environmental conservation, national parks have many other functions — including regional land management — which do not fall under the purview of the forestry bureau or the EPA, Construction and Planning Agency Director-General Wu Hsin-hsiu (吳欣修) told lawmakers.
Should the amendments be promulgated into law, a national land management bureau and a national parks bureau would be set up, which would help government efforts in planning and using national land for urban development purposes, Lin said.
The joint committee also approved draft bills on organization acts for the National Fire Agency, a national land management agency and a national park agency.
Expressing his hope that the bill would be passed this legislative session, Lin said that it would need cross-party negotiations on disagreements over some of the proposals and that his ministry would continue to communicate with legislators.
Also yesterday, the legislature’s Internal Affairs Committee passed the first reading of an amendment to the Marine Pollution Control Act (海洋污染防治法).
The amendment would see the addition of a marine pollution prevention tax, the minimum amount of which has yet to be decided, as well as the establishment of a marine pollution prevention foundation.
Crude oil importers, maritime construction firms and businesses creating marine waste would all have to pay the fees, the amendment says.
The fund would source measures for preventing, cleaning and handling marine waste nationwide.
The amendment hopes to strengthen the nation’s control over the maritime environment, protect the seas and ensure the sustainable use of marine water.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS