The campaign demanding President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) resignation, which has lasted more than three weeks, has created unbearable strain on the police force and harmed the public interest, Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said yesterday following the death of a senior police officer on Sunday.
Police Captain Liu Tien-hsia (劉天下), chief of the Criminal Investigation Department of Yunlin County's Huwei (虎尾) branch, died of a stroke while on duty during an anti-Chen demonstration.
"Since the anti-Chen campaign began, police officers have been unable to take any time off. We feel terrible about what happened to Officer Liu. He couldn't sleep at night because he had a toothache, but he couldn't take a break either," Lee said.
Lee made the remarks while briefing lawmakers about the impact of Shih Ming-teh's (施明德) anti-Chen campaign on the police force.
"We call on Shih Ming-teh not to make his campaign an endless one. Otherwise, in the long run, it will have serious consequences for social stability," Lee said.
Lee said that deploying police officers to maintain order at anti-Chen protests had influenced the police force's ability to combat crime.
"Some 63,000 of the police force's 67,700 police officers have been used to maintain order since the anti-Chen campaign started. If there were no such protests, we could have prevented about 500 more crimes from taking place," Lee said.
Citing the limited number of police officers in Taipei City, Lee urged Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"About half of the policemen used to maintain order during anti-Chen protests in Taipei were sent from other cities or counties," Lee said.
Meanwhile, eight Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators announced yesterday that members of the DPP caucus will each donate a day's pay to Liu's family.
DPP Legislator Lee Ming-Hsien (
"Your requests have been heard. Please end the tour so that the police officers can take a break," he said, addressing Shih directly.
Lee called on Shih to respect the judicial system and leave the investigation of alleged corruption scandals involving the president and his family to Prosecutor Eric Chen (
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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