KMT lawmaker demands better disaster readiness

The government should improve its ability to handle and prevent landslides and floods such as those brought on by Typhoon Toraji, opposition lawmakers said yesterday.

Lee Cheng-chong (李正宗), whip of the KMT legislative caucus, said infrastructure projects related to natural disaster prevention should be given priority in the next budget.

In addition, the Cabinet should put forth plans to prevent and control natural disasters and deliver a special report on the proposals to the legislature after the session reopens in September, Lee said.

The lawmaker asked authorities to speed up their efforts to repair damaged transportation facilities, search for missing people and make up for the losses of farmers and fishermen in the affected areas.

Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), convener of the PFP legislative caucus, said the government should double its budget for flood and landslide prevention projects.

The government's lack of professional ability to prevent and forecast the possible occurrence of landslides was responsible for the severe disasters, Chou said.

Also, Chou said the Cabinet should look into the alleged negligence of Hualien County Commissioner Wang Ching-feng (王慶豐), Nantou County Commissioner Pang Pai-hsien (彭百顯) and Changhua County Commissioner Juan Kang-meng (阮剛猛) for failing to take proper measures to cope with the disaster.

At the time of the typhoon, Wang was in Taipei attending the KMT's 16th national congress, and Pang was taking part in a "spiritual reconstruction" tour at a Hsitou mountain resort.

Juan, meanwhile, was blamed for not ordering schools to suspend classes, which critics say led to the deaths and injury of some schoolchildren.

In response to the criticism, the DPP legislative caucus said it regretted the severe disaster and losses resulting from the typhoon, and urged people to put aside political differences to work together to help the victims.

Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), chief executive of the DPP caucus, said his caucus will seek to negotiate with opposition lawmakers to have them lift a restriction on the use of a NT$9.3 billion tax redistribution fund to facilitate relief and reconstruction efforts.

According to an opposition-proposed resolution adopted by the legislature, the Cabinet is required to obtain the legislature's approval before drawing on the fund.

Early last month, at the request of the Cabinet, the legislature approved the spending of NT$3 billion from the fund to cope with disasters expected during the typhoon season.

On the reconstruction work, Tsai proposed that the Cabinet follow the example of handling the earthquake of Sept. 21, 1999 and set up a special task force to supervise reconstruction projects in hard-hit areas.