A NT$16 billion fund earmarked by the Executive Yuan for next year's fiscal budget to provide NT$3,000 monthly pensions to the elderly passed the legislature's Home and Nations Committee unconditionally yesterday, triggering strong protest from opposition lawmakers.
The lawmakers, led by Shyh Jong-shyong (
Shyh criticized the DPP by saying that the ruling party was acting like a "monarchy" for pushing through a pension program without any legal basis.
"The Executive Yuan has earmarked the fund just because President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) made a campaign promise. The people behind this bill have absolutely no respect for the law," Shyh said.
The dispute started after a rider prohibiting the Cabinet from issuing the pensions until a related law is passed -- proposed by the opposition as a condition to let the budget pass the committee -- was ignored by the chairman of yesterday's committee meeting, DPP lawmaker Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅).
In the meeting, Minister of the Interior Chang Po-ya (張博雅) argued that the pension program should be launched in accordance with the Elders' Welfare Law (老人福利法).
Chang said her ministry has set restrictions on the beneficiaries to guarantee the fairness of the program.
She rejected the opposition's allegation that the program was improvised "DPP largesse" intended to win votes, promising that the Cabinet would earmark an annual NT$16 billion for the program for at least four consecutive years.
The pension plan was one of Chen's campaign promises during last year's presidential race.
Under the Ministry of the Interior's plan, the program will target citizens over the age of 65 who are not covered under existing welfare programs. Those who earn more than NT$500,000 per year or hold more than NT$5 million in assets are also excluded.
Opposition lawmakers, however, insisted that the program be backed up by a special law to ensure the continuity of the policy and to prevent it from becoming a blandishment in the upcoming elections.
The Cabinet is not prepared to send the bill to the legislature for approval, in a move to prevent the opposition, especially the KMT, from making changes to the program.
Reluctant to lose the support of the elderly, the KMT has put forth a bill that sets much looser restrictions on the eligibility of beneficiaries, which would end up costing the government NT$5 billion annually.
Also yesterday, Lin Chuan (林全), head of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, came under fire from KMT lawmakers during a Budgets and Final Accounts Committee meeting, over a series of TV commercials launched by the DPP to attack the opposition during the run-up to the Dec. 1 legislative elections.
Suspecting that it was Lin's idea to resort to what she called "mean and immoral" tactics, Yu Yueh-hsia (
"People will give birth to children with no asses for using such mean and immoral ads just to win elections," Yu said, referring to a superstitious belief that people will get retribution for their sinful deeds.
A total of 15 KMT lawmakers were named in the ads, which were intended to highlight the DPP's claim that the opposition was so "barbarous" that they cut budgets for child welfare and local development.
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