The “C1 mark” appended to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) assets and its affiliate organizations, which President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government had removed nearly seven years ago, is likely to be reinstated after the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee on Wednesday last week passed a motion in favor of the move.
In December 2005, the Ministry of the Interior, according to an executive order of the then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, instructed land administration units to append the C1 mark to all national assets registered to the KMT and its affiliate organizations.
The intent was to remind corporate owners of the risks they faced when buying allegedly illegal assets the KMT was liquidating.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, the C1 mark was removed after Ma was elected president in 2008; the Ma administration also closed down Web sites detailing the party’s disputed assets.
All related information was also removed from Web sites such as the National Property Administration.
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-chin (葉宜津) said that the Ministry of the Interior was on April 3, 2009, informed by the Ministry of Finance to remove all C1 marks, and the interior ministry on April 13 that same year informed local government agencies to remove the C1 marks.
DPP legislators had since attempted to pass a motion in the legislature so that the interior ministry could reinstate the C1 mark on KMT assets, but they had been unable to do so due to the KMT’s majority in the Legislative Yuan.
DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) on Wednesday last week made a provisional motion on the matter during a meeting of the legislative committee, which was approved by more than half of the DPP members in the committee.
Launching a general inquiry into the assets alleged to have been illegally seized by the KMT and its affiliate organizations saw popular support, Chao said, adding that the C1 mark must be reinstated to prevent innocent people from buying such property.
“This would prevent further complications between the law and the issue of the party assets,” Chao said.
Chao said that the KMT’s allegedly illegal assets appropriated from national property had been liquidated from NT$6.6 billion (US$202.95 million) to NT$1 billion since the Ma administration’s removal of the C1 mark.
“The C1 mark must be urgently reapplied to all assets that are under the KMT’s name,” Chao said.
The committee had originally asked the interior ministry to reapply the mark immediately, but the ministry said it did not possess files on party assets, Chao said, adding that the committee had instead asked the Ministry of Finance to make known details of the KMT’s assets.
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