Former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男) will be expelled from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for his alleged involvement in the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) scandal, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
The expulsion will be made official in a provisional Central Standing Committee which the DPP is to hold this evening.
The move came after a further scandal involving Chen came to light, when a picture was released by a talk show on the television station TVBS, which showed Chen Che-nan and former KRTC vice chairman Chen Min-hsien (陳敏賢) sitting together at a casino table in South Korea's Cheju Island on Nov. 2, 2002, Su said the DPP will deal with Chen Che-nan with "the harshest punishment under the highest standard" if he did involved in the scandal.
It is considered a breach of protocol for Taiwanese officials to travel to a foreign country without permission.
POSSIBLE VIOLATION
Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun said that Chen Che-nan might have violated the Public Service Act.
"The harshest punishment is to be expelled from the DPP. Any party member who violates the law or discipline or is dishonest to society will impact the DPP's image, and we have to do something about this situation," Su said. "We are deeply sorry [for the scandal]."
Su said the DPP established a panel two weeks ago to probe into Chen Che-nan's involvement in the KRTC scandal, and that a final investigation report will be released in the next two days.
Expressing concern that the scandal will have a negative impact on the DPP candidates' electoral outlook in December's local government elections, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬), also the chief of the DPP's central evaluation committee, said the DPP should take disciplinary action against Chen Che-nan as soon as possible if he was implicated in the case.
The DPP originally planned to deal with the issue in the Central Standing Committee meeting to be held next Wednesday.
However, to deal with the escalating scandal, the party decided to hold a provisional central standing committee meeting tonight at 9:30pm.
"It is unavoidable that a green forest will be infested by some pests. But the DPP will manage inappropriate affairs caused by some party members as quickly as possible and take responsibility," Su said.
After being questioned at the Kaohsiung Prosecutors' Office last night, Chen Che-nan was released on bail for NT$500,000.
RESPONSE
In response to accusations made by a guest on the TVBS talk show who claimed that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was involved in the KRTC scandal because he had seen documents regarding importation of Thai laborers, Presidential Office Spokesman Chen Wen-tsung (陳文宗) said the accusation was far from reality.
The president had not seen such documents, the spokesman said.
"It is conventional procedure for the Executive Yuan to present all documents that the government has signed with other countries to the Presidential Office. The practice has existed since the former government was in power," the spokesman said.
Chen Wen-tzung said the presidential office got such documents from the Executive Yuan each year -- 78 pieces in 1999, 46 in 2000, 61 in 2001, 56 in 2002, 54 in 2003 and 60 last year.
However, as the government wished to simplify the approval procedure for documents sent from the Executive Yuan, the president did not see the documents mentioned in the TV talk show, he said.
The spokesman said that the documents were received by Chao Lin (趙麟), the director of the Presidential Office's bureau in charge of documents, and then sent by Chao to the deputy secretary-general of the office, Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), who was then the manager of the president's office.
The spokesman added that the presidential office had transferred Chen Che-nan's case to the Control Yuan yesterday for investigation.
Meanwhile, Yu yesterday told the media that the president was not happy about Chen Che-nan's misconduct.
"It is illegal and improper for government employees to go abroad without asking for leave beforehand. The Presidential Office won't cover up his mistake," Yu said.
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said the DPP should not be afraid that the investigation of alleged scandals will impact its year-end elections.
"Let it be what it should be. Let prosecutors finish their jobs," Hsieh said. "It is not time for us DPP people to worry about whether we will lose votes during the year-end elections because of this."
Hsieh made his remarks when fielding questions on the legislative floor yesterday.
Hsieh said that taking advantage of the alleged scandals to attack the DPP may only be the pan-blue camp's wishful thinking, because he had heard that things were not as simple as they seem.
"The alleged Kaohsiung MRT project scandal for instance, I have learned that many pan-blue lawmakers are also involved," Hsieh said. "Just leave prosecutors alone and let them finish their investigation."
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
People First Party Chairman James Soong (
"Canceling Chen Che-nan's party membership is merely a means to shift the focus, and the president should apologize for Chen's actions," Soong said. "The DPP government is corrupting so fast that it is astonishing to watch."
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang and Mo Yan-chih
VIGILANCE: From tomorrow all arrivals must provide the result of a PCR test issued within three days of boarding, and the CECC asked people to report anyone who has faked their result The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) expects an increase in the number of returning travelers in the coming days, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday, adding that the varying qualities of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test reports from other countries is a big concern. Chen, who heads the center, was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders scholarship award ceremony in Taipei. “As the global COVID-19 situation is worsening, and with some holidays coming up, there might be an increase in the number of overseas Taiwanese returning to Taiwan,” he
SKIN, ENTRAILS: Placards also dotted the legislative chamber, with slogans such as ‘Oppose ractopamine pork — not US pork’ and ‘Much ado about nothing’ Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday pelted Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) with pig skin and entrails as he addressed the Legislative Yuan on pork imports for the first time since the KMT’s boycott began on Sept. 18. Opposition lawmakers have been demanding an apology from the government for its decision to lift its ban on the importation of US pork containing residues of the livestock drug ractopamine. After Su arrived at 10am for his 13th attempt to deliver a regular policy report, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus moved to change the agenda to accommodate the premier. The motion resulted in cries of
CECC RULES: The autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program, including mandatory mask wearing in eight types of public venues and indoor facilities, begins today A temporary, two-week ban on Indonesian migrant workers entering the nation is to begin on Friday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday as it reported 24 new imported cases of COVID-19. Twenty of the new cases are Indonesian migrant workers who arrived between Nov. 11 and Friday last week, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. The cases were discovered during a special project on Friday to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on all 939 recently arrived Indonesian migrant workers in centralized quarantine facilities, as the majority of imported cases in the past
Passports with a redesigned cover highlighting Taiwan would be issued starting on Jan. 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The new cover design, which was announced on Sept. 2, highlights Taiwan by printing the word in a larger font. While the new passport cover retains “the Republic of China” in Chinese, the English name is printed along the outer circle of the national emblem, which would enable other nations to clearly identify that it is a Taiwanese passport, not a Chinese passport, the ministry said. The costs and application procedures for the new version are the same as
RSS