President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was met with complaints and heckling from typhoon victims yesterday as he visited Baolai Village (寶來), one of the hardest-hit areas in Kaohsiung County, for the first time since Typhoon Morakot wreaked havoc in southern Taiwan two weeks ago.
With the village unreachable by ground transport, Ma arrived in Liouguei Township (六龜) by helicopter. As soon as villagers spotted Ma, they began approaching him with complaints, saying “no one cares about us.”
“It has been days and our family members’ remains have still not been found,” one villager said. “There are not enough excavators, so we have to dig by hand. Please help us, Mr President!”
PHOTO: YANG CHIN-CHENG, TAIPEI TIMES
“Our homes were buried by the mudslide, and an excavator came and dug for a day and left,” another villager said. “Everything is gone. We might as well all be dead.”
In response to criticism from villagers that Ma’s visit came too late, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the president had delayed visiting the disaster area to avoid interfering with the rescue effort.
Ma, whose popularity has plummeted amid widespread criticism of the government’s response to the disaster, began visiting affected areas in the last few days as rescue work winds down and the nation prepares for post-disaster reconstruction, Wang said.
Ma did not visit the hardest-hit areas until 12 days after the typhoon struck. He visited Siaolin Village (小林) on Wednesday and the Sinkai Community (新開部落) on Thursday.
Ma yesterday also visited Namasiya Township (那瑪夏), where about 600 residents remain. Others have been evacuated to Cishan Township (旗山).
Roads to the village were still being repaired, and they had neither electricity nor water supplies, residents told Ma.
The president shook hands with residents and promised to speed up rescue and relief efforts.
Ma then visited Taoyuan Township (桃源) for about an hour before heading to the military command center at Cishan Township. Ma and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) later presided over a disaster reconstruction meeting at the center and spent the night in the township.
Ma is scheduled to visit Siaolin Village again today and attend the erqi (二七), a traditional rite held on the 14th day after a person’s death.
Earlier yesterday in Taipei, while meeting with US Representative Howard Berman at the Presidential Office, Ma thanked the US for assisting rescue efforts by providing helicopters earlier this week to help lift engineering vehicles to hard-hit villages.
Meanwhile, Wang yesterday dismissed speculation that Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (台灣高鐵) chief executive officer Ou Chin-der (歐晉德), a former Ma aide, would take over as Executive Yuan secretary-general after Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) tendered his resignation.
Hsueh had been criticized for dining with his family at a five-star hotel while Typhoon Morakot ravaged the south.
When asked by reporters if Ma would keep Liu as premier, Wang said Ma did not plan to replace Liu during the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle.
Lawmakers across party lines yesterday decided to hold a provisional session next week to deliberate on a special statute for post-Morakot reconstruction that would facilitate recovery efforts.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said it would present a draft proposal at the three-day session from Tuesday to Thursday to be discussed together with the Executive Yuan’s proposal, which capped the reconstruction budget at NT$100 billion (US$ 3.03 billion).
DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said his party’s version would include short-term subsidies for losses in agriculture, as the subsidy earmarked by the Executive Yuan for this purpose would be inadequate to cover even farmers’ losses, not to mention medium and long-term reconstruction.
“For example, an orchid farmer who owns about a hectare of land may have lost NT$30 million in the flooding, but he or she would receive just NT$60,000 from the government’s subsidy program. Compensation should be based on farmers’ actual losses,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS