Minister of Justice Lo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) yesterday said that the resolution adopted on Monday by a legislative committee that all cases being probed by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) be suspended and the division not investigate any new cases was “legitimately questionable.”
“This was a serious matter” and thus “was not for me to decide,” Lo said in response to media queries on whether the ministry would follow the resolution.
The resolution would destroy the judicial system because the SID is an legitimate institution based on the Organic Act of Court Organization (法院組織法), she said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Lo said she questioned whether the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee’s resolution could override the law by ordering the SID to halt operations.
The committee’s motion, which passed by a 4 to 3 vote, said the SID should turn its active cases over to regular prosecutors and stop taking new cases.
The committee has nine members, but its convener, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟), did not vote because he can only vote in case of a tie.
Four of the members are KMT lawmakers and four are from the opposition. KMT Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) abstained rather than follow the party line and vote against the motion.
Hsieh said it made sense for the SID to stop handling cases for the time being because of the controversy over its operations.
If the SID were to handle highly sensitive cases, the results of its investigations would not be very credible, he said.
The committee also passed a motion to set up a task force to investigate the SID’s wiretapping activities that first exposed alleged improper lobbying by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
RSS