Yesterday's Cabinet-imposed deadline for local government distribution of compensation payments (
Though Premier Siew (
Siew yesterday avoided reporters' questions about whether the central government would punish localities found to be behind schedule, reiterating instead his support for the hard work being done by local officials in the fund disbursement process.
PHOTO: SUNG CHIH-HSIUNG, LIBERTY TIMES
"I am very grateful to these township leaders, as they have already issued a large portion of the compensation funds," he said. "The central government and township offices have to work as one, so we shouldn't be considered separately. Getting the work done is the most important thing."
Siew also responded to criticism over the changing directives for compensation eligibility.
"I can understand that grass-roots leaders are under great pressure, but at this point the [central] government can only solve technical problems for them. As I understand it, they have their own local problems, such as landlord-tenant disputes after the identification of damaged buildings, which we can't solve," he said.
Liu San-chi (劉三錡), a representative of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (主計處, DGBAS), said local governments handed out NT$1.5 billion in housing compensation funds to earthquake victims on Friday alone.
He added that local governments should be able to disburse all housing compensation funds that do not involve damage certification disputes by tomorrow or Tuesday.
The slow distribution of housing compensation, however, has angered some earthquake victims. The central government recently accused localities of inefficiency and corruption, and ordered they issue all housing compensation funds by yesterday, under threat of punishment.
After visiting with local government agencies, Taichung County Commissioner Liao Yung-lai (
Work in handing out compensation funds is behind schedule in Taichung City and Taichung and Nantou Counties.
Local governments also began disbursing funds for the "jobs in exchange for relief" program yesterday. The program was set up by the Council for Labor Affairs, and pays the minimum wage to local residents in exchange for work on reconstruction efforts. Those who are currently unemployed and had their houses damaged in the earthquake are eligible.
Enthusiasm for the plan varied by locality. Some 949 people lined up to collect NT$13,200 per person in Tali (
No one collected their work subsidies in Fengyuan City (
2,000 earthquake victims were eligible to collect the subsidy in Nantou City (
Some of the residents collecting work aid funds in Nantou City wondered how they would get by on only a little more than NT$10,000 for a whole month.
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS