The Cabinet yesterday said it would not be asking Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) to resign for accepting a massage from unlicensed masseuses.
"At the moment, there's no question of shouldering political responsibility as the matter doesn't involve any political decision made on any political issue," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
According to Lin, Premier Yu Shyi-kun has ordered the Cabinet's ethics department to investigate the matter, while Yu Cheng-hsien himself has apologized to the public for making a mistake and will assume any responsibility, both legal and administrative.
"The minister telephoned the premier on Wednesday to brief him before holding a press conference to offer his apology," Lin said. "As both the judicial and administrative systems are investigating the matter, I'm calling on the public and the media to be patient and stop politicizing the matter and making it more complicated."
Apparently unsatisfied with the Cabinet's handling of the incident, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lee Chia-chin (
"As both the president and the premier think the minister is still fit for his job, I think both of them owe the public an explanation," Lee said.
Taipei City Government officials yesterday went to the massage parlor Yu Cheng-hsien visited, but it was closed.
The city, however, issued tickets of NT$10,000 to the two masseuses who worked on Yu Cheng-hsien and another NT$20,000 ticket to the proprietor.
The issue threatened to tarnish the government's image at a sensitive time -- just as Chen prepares for March's presidential election. Yu is one of Chen's confidants.
The investigation began after a magazine alleged that Yu accepted the massages as a bribe from businesspeople.
Yu acknowledged that he received the massage, but he denied that the businesspeople paid for it.
A local newspaper quoted Yu as saying that he comes from the south where people have a custom of taking turns in treating each other to such services.
"Sometimes people treat me, and the next time I treat them," Yu was quoted as saying.
Yu was not suspected of seeking sexual services from the two masseuses, who were described as older women.
But Yu acknowledged that the women were not licensed to perform massages and he apologized for not following regulations. Only visually-impaired people can get licenses to perform massages.
The interior minister has been the target of a number of accusations since taking up the post in February last year.
Most seriously, he was accused of involvement in the Zanadau scandal when he was Kaohsiung County commissioner after a former colleague of his was arrested late last year.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS