Ministry of National Defense Political Warfare Bureau Director Wen Chen-kuo (聞振國) yesterday pledged to review all dealings involving military housing units to ascertain whether any of them were sold during the five-year prohibition period.
Wen was responding to a request made by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) at a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee in Taipei yesterday, during which Chiu urged the ministry to take a stance against real-estate agents’ blatant promotion of military apartment sales.
“Since the promulgation of the Act for Rebuilding Old Quarters for Military Dependents (國軍老舊眷村改建條例) in 1996, [owners of military houses] are barred from transferring the units to another person within five years of the registration of the property,” Wen said.
Photo: CNA
The ministry is entitled to repossess units sold or transferred during the five-year prohibition period, Wen said, adding that the ministry is not aware of any owner who has broken the law.
“Prearranged sales agreements do not show up in land administration records. They can only be detected by reviewing tax returns or property declaration documents,” Wen said, vowing to launch a thorough investigation.
Wen made the remarks amid the controversy surrounding Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Jennifer Wang’s (王如玄) alleged speculative sales of several military housing units.
DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) has alleged that Wang purchased at least 19 military housing units, which were subsidized and converted by the government from old housing for military dependents for the sole purpose of improving their living conditions and providing housing for military veterans.
Tuan has also accused Wang of dodging the five-year ban by brokering transactions in which the buyer makes a cash payment or provides a promissory note in exchange for the future ownership of the property after the five-year prohibition period.
Wang retaliated by filing a slander lawsuit against Tuan on Wednesday.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister of National Defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻) also promised to re-evaluate the Act for Rebuilding Old Quarters for Military Dependents and to lay down further restrictions.
“The ministry has been reviewing the law and working to devise ways to prevent prearranged sales since the Control Yuan pointed out the issue in 2013,” Kao said.
Kao said he had no comment about Wang’s personal conduct, but said that the intention of the act is to take care of residents of old military dependents’ villages, military veterans and active military personnel.
Separately yesterday, KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) defended his selection of Wang as his running mate, saying that what the public cares about are Wang’s long-term efforts on the rights of women and disadvantaged people, as well as improving workers’ rights.
“The DPP’s negative campaign tactics are detrimental to Taiwanese democracy,” Chu said.
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