The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday it would invite Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) to brief the legislature on the Cabinet’s post-Morakot reconstruction plan tomorrow, but the idea was rejected by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus during cross-party negotiations.
The Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) at 6pm yesterday also revised the death toll from Typhoon Morakot to 461 dead, 192 missing and 46 injured.
The sharp increase came after the center decided to include the 318 people presumed dead from Siaolin Village (小林) in Kaohsiung County’s Jiasian Township (甲仙).
Earlier yesterday at the DPP caucus meeting, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) had proposed inviting the premier.
Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), head of the DPP Policy Research Committee, said Liu had proven himself incompetent during the disaster relief, adding: “If he doesn’t come, then he can stay out of [the legislature] forever.”
However, the KMT opposed the idea, with KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) saying no premiers in the nation's history had ever briefed the legislature on a single proposed statute.
Liu would still need to report to the legislature and answer questions after the Cabinet detailed its special budget for reconstruction, Lin said.
DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said the DPP regretted the KMT’s refusal to invite the premier but it would not boycott reviews of the Cabinet's special post-typhoon reconstruction proposal.
Meanwhile, legislators have yet to agree on how much should be spent on reconstruction.
The Cabinet finalized the central government budget for the next fiscal year at its weekly meeting last Thursday and suggested seeking a NT$447 billion (US$13.5 billion) loan to provide the money needed for the estimated NT$100 billion needed for post-Morakot reconstruction and other spending.
The DPP wants a minimum of NT$200 billion for reconstruction.
“We have no problems with the government's NT$100 billion budget request ... We are just afraid the central government would give [typhoon-stricken] cities and counties less money because they are governed by the DPP,” Wang said.
Therefore, we hope the budget would exceed NT$200 billion, equal to the budget for reconstruction after the 921 Earthquake,” Wang said.
But Lin said there should be a reasonable rationale if the legislature were to increase the reconstruction budget.
Meanwhile outside the legislature, a number of civil groups criticized the government for trying to push the Morakot-rebuilding plan through by tomorrow, complaining that no typhoon victims had been invited to the Cabinet's Post-Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction Committee's meetings.
Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said the government failed to hold any public hearing before the Executive Yuan approved its proposed statute.
Pan said the various versions proposed by the Cabinet, the KMT and the DPP all focused on how to distribute the NT$100 billion budget but failed to address the liability of government agencies in charge of water resources.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Tsai Chih-hsun (蔡季勳) said legislators should hold the extraordinary plenary sessions in the disaster-hit areas
to hear from Aboriginal communities hurt by the typhoon.
Meanwhile, with the deadline set by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to produce an initial post-disaster reconstruction and victim resettlement in mind, the Cabinet said yesterday that Liu will move down south to speed up the pace of the work.
RSS