Despite strong opposition from local governments, it is likely that new amendments to the Cable Television Law (有線廣播電視法) will be implemented as planned. That is, unless the Legislative Yuan makes a move on its own to reconsider the changes it has just passed.
The legislature's speaker, Wang Jin-pyng (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"We will not send them to the president if we receive such a motion. Otherwise, we will follow normal procedures," Wang said.
The amendments are expected to be sent out by Monday at the latest.
The recent amendments, which transferred the power to supervise fee structure formulation for cable television from local governments to the central government, have triggered strong backlash from some local governments, especially the Taipei City Government.
According to the Standing Order of the Legislative Yuan (
In this case, however, as the controversial amendments were passed on Jan. 4 during the final meeting of the last legislative session, the motion must be raised before the amendments are sent to the Presidential Office.
The legislature is currently in recess and will not meet again until Feb. 20.
As of yesterday, no lawmakers had expressed an intention to raise a motion to reconsider the amendments.
Ruling and opposition lawmakers said they prefer revising the law again in the future if the amendments are proven to be infeasible.
"Even if there are problems, we can still amend the law again. It is unnecessary to seek a reconsideration," said Ker Chien-ming (
Cheng Yung-chin (
"The ideal situation would be if the Executive Yuan requests the legislature to reconsider the amendments. If the Executive Yuan does not do so, there will still be chances to amend the law again in the future," Cheng said.
Though the Executive Yuan can return a bill passed by the legislature and request the legislature to reconsider it within 10 days after it is submitted to the Executive Yuan, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) has ruled out this possibility.
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