A group of people claiming to be landowners and their relatives gathered at a gas station operated by the Chinese Petroleum Corp (
The company promised to look into the matter and participate in the public hearing scheduled to take place at the city council on Aug. 10.
"It's an old and complicated case. We need time to gather sufficient information," said Chen Chin-kuo (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING
Chanting "Chinese Petroleum Corporation bandits" and "Return our lost land," about 200 people holding placards and white cloth banners gathered at the Wanlung gas station located at the intersection of Hsinlung Road and Roosevelt Road in the Wenshan District to demand the return of the 560-ping piece of land, which has been used by the company as a gas station since 1965.
"When the five land owners pawned the land for NT$1.3 million in 1965, they signed an agreement with the company to buy back the land 30 years later in 1995," said Kuo Chin (
She added that although the landowners paid the company back NT$170,000 in 1976, the company in return filed a lawsuit in 1994 against them, saying that the company legally owns the land.
"It's too much that they not only eat the meat but also gnaw on the bones," Kuo said.
When the owners made an appeal to the High Court, the court ruled in favor of the company.
"There's no justice for the poor," Kuo said.
Ninety-year-old Tung Chi-shan (
The Chinese Petroleum Corp is a state-ownded enterprise under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, now awaiting privatization. It is expected that with the approval of a bill regulating the petroleum industry, the privatization plan will be completed by the end of 2003.
Hsieh Jung-chen (
"We have documents to prove that the company has applied the same strategy to 28 other locations spread across Taiwan, and that the High Court ruled in favor of the company in 26 cases."
The company has about 80 gas stations in Taipei City and 500 more in Taiwan.
Hsieh called on the landowners of the 28 places to join them in a nationwide demonstration, the date of which has not been finalized.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)