A demonstration by former highway toll collectors confronted President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday as she attended the Taipei Dragon Boat Festival, while later in the day in Pingtung, she was met by a protest against the government’s pension reform proposals.
In the morning, Tsai briefly visited the Dajia Riverside Park in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to cheer for a dragon boat crew representing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but her visit was marred by the demonstration by former toll collectors, who police kept at a distance from the president.
Protesters demanded that Tsai honor an agreement between the government and the former toll collectors made on Aug. 16 last year, which promised them NT$580 million (US$19.26 million at the current exchange rate) in unemployment compensation by Jan. 15 this year.
PHOTO: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
The amount has not been paid in full or in total compliance with the agreement, Former Freeway Toll Collectors Self-Help Organization president Sun Hsiu-luan (孫秀鑾) said.
The Ministry of Labor paid only about NT$132 million to 884 former toll collectors — NT$150,000 per person — on Jan. 15, and the ministry has said it objects to the terms agreed between the Cabinet and the organization, Sun said.
The organization has staged a sit-in in front of the Presidential Office Building since May 15, with members camping on nearby sidewalks and staging protests daily.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“We cannot accept it. We have been protesting for more than 10 days, but the government has made no response at all. We staged the protest today because we do not want to lose any opportunity to have dialogue with the government,” Sun said. “We are utterly disappointed. The DPP administration has called itself the government most willing to communicate, but what it does is disregard the public’s voice.”
A total of 947 former toll collectors lost their jobs in 2013 when the nation adopted an electronic toll collection system.
A series of rallies have been held in the intervening years against the Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC, 遠東電子收費), with protesters saying the firm did not meet its obligations to introduce employment opportunities to former toll collectors or make severance payments.
Photo: CNA
Tsai praised the DPP boating team’s performance, but did not make any comment on the protest.
Later yesterday, scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators in Pingtung as opponents of the government’s pension reform proposals rallied outside a venue where Tsai was attending a concert sponsored by the Presidential Office at the Pingtung Performing Arts Center.
Hundreds of protesters also rallied in front of the center to protest against proposed cuts to public servants’ pensions.
The president’s motorcade entered the venue from the back without interacting with protesters.
Sporadic conflicts broke out between demonstrators and the police, but no injuries were reported.
The protesters delivered a petition to a Presidential Office official.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique