Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of rendering clandestine protection to Farglory Group (遠雄集團) over its scandal-prone Taipei Dome project, a Taipei city councilor said yesterday.
Taipei City Councilor Chang Mao-nan (張茂楠) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said Ko made the accusation when he met with the DPP’s council caucus earlier yesterday to discuss the dome’s future.
Ko appeared enraged during the meeting, Chang said, adding that Ko at one point was choking back tears and pounding on the table, saying: “Behind Farglory, there is President Ma Ying-jeou, watching its back.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Ko was quoted by Chang as saying that the city government’s struggle with Farglory has been protracted because he had “insisted on justice and fairness” as a bottom line from which he “will not retreat,” and called Ma’s alleged protection of Farglory “contemptible.”
On Thursday last week, Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) said the city government and Farglory had arrived at a consensus to dissolve the contract for the Taipei Dome build-operate-transfer project, following a year-long fight over what the city council said were the structure’s safety flaws and design changes Farglory made to the dome.
At the time, when asked whether the city could afford the potential compensation, which Farglory said would amount to NT$37 billion (US$1.14 billion), including construction fees, salaries and the losses it incurred from the construction’s suspension, Ko said the actual amount of compensation would be ascertained after a review of the city’s accounts and Farglory’s accounting statements.
Chang yesterday said the DPP caucus had voted unanimously against paying Farglory the NT$37 billion from city coffers and categorically rejected creating a budget for the compensation.
The search for a third party to take over construction of the Taipei Dome from Farglory would not begin until the termination of the contract is finalized, Chang added.
Later yesterday, Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) issued a statement denying Ko’s accusations that Farglory Land Development Co has Ma’s support.
“Mayor Ko is advised to refrain from making wild and malicious accusations,” Chen said, adding that Ko should not seek to shift public attention from his plummeting approval ratings to Ma.
“I believe the public knows what is fair,” Chen added.
Farglory Group yesterday said that as it has not broken the law or the terms of its contract, there is no need for anyone “to watch its back.”
There is no need for Ko to be distressed, because the two sides can set aside their differences, restore the contract and keep the damage to a minimum, Farglory added.
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole