Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) apologized again yesterday for having taken a nap at her residence on Sept. 19 while Typhoon Fanapi left the city under water.
“Even though I went home to change out of wet clothes and had a short rest ... I should not have done these things. Because of this, the city government left people with a very bad impression. I feel really guilty and sorry,” she said. “I was in Kaohsiung City and did not forsake my duty, but I feel really guilty, I should not have taken a rest.”
A teary-eyed Chen made the comments before entering the Kaohsiung City Council hall for a question-and-answer session.
PHOTO: CNA
While fielding questions from several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilors on Tuesday, Chen admitted that she returned to her residence at 2:30pm after an inspection tour and rested for about 20 to 30 minutes. She said she went out to inspect the flood situation at 4:52pm before heading back to the emergency operation center at 6:30pm.
At yesterday’s city council session, KMT Kaohsiung City Councilor May Zai-hsin (梅再興) accused Chen of incompetence and demanded her resignation.
“Which one of you would like to take political responsibility? One of the two deputy mayors has to resign,” KMT Kaohsiung City Councilor Wang Ling-chiao (王齡嬌) said, referring to Lee Yung-te (李永得) and Lin Jen-yi (林仁益), who both admitted to being at home.
Chen said she would not shy away from shouldering responsibility for post-flood reconstruction tasks and that she would leave it to the public to judge her performance when they vote in the Nov. 27 special municipality elections.
At a separate setting, Chen’s KMT rival Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) urged the Control Yuan and prosecutors to launch an investigation into what she said was “negligence of duty” on the part of Chen and her administration.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) joined the chorus of critics.
“I don’t understand why Chen Chu had to go back to take a rest at that time,” he said, adding: “If local government chiefs were as cautious as President Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] when the typhoon was approaching, the disaster would not have been so bad.”
KMT Legislator Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) blasted Chen for not resigning, saying that when Typhoon Morakot hit last year, the opposition attacked then-premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) for getting a haircut and then-Executive Yuan secretary-general Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) for dining with his father. They both stepped down to take political responsibility, Lin said.
“There’s no point in having people who had a haircut or had rice porridge [at a five-star hotel] resign, while those who slept at home refuse to do so,” Lin said.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, just behind Amazon.com Inc. The site CompaniesMarketcap.com ranked TSMC ahead of Saudi Aramco and Meta Platforms Inc. The Taiwanese company’s ADRs on Tuesday surged to US$385.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications led to chip supply constraints and boost revenue growth to record-breaking levels. Each TSMC ADR represents
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS