Lawmakers yesterday criticized accusations made by DPP lawmaker Chang Chin-fang (張清芳) that up to 20 of his colleagues had taken bribes in return for supporting a bill to amend the Electronic Game Regulation Act (電子遊戲場業管理條例).
The KMT has also told its lawmakers to withdraw their endorsement of the amendment, which would legalize video-game arcades, yet continue to ban video games for gambling.
Chang and another DPP lawmaker, Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), held a press conference on Thursday during which they accused colleagues from various parties of accepting bribes, ranging between NT$500,000 and NT$3 million, from operators of video-game arcades to endorse the amendment.
Yesterday morning, KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) contacted the KMT's legislative caucus whip, Lee Cheng-chong (李正宗), asking him to find out if any KMT legislator was involved in the alleged corruption.
Lin told Lee: "Before we clear things up, our policy is to drop our endorsement of the amendment. We cannot allow any one of our legislators to accept bribes. We need to figure out who those people are, if there are any."
New Party lawmaker Elmer Fung (馮滬祥) said that the accusation was ridiculous since Yeh and Chang failed to provide any evidence.
"I have endorsed the amendment," Fung said. "However, it is an insult for them to say that lawmakers who endorsed the bill have accepted bribes since it's not the truth. I will commit suicide if I am found guilty."
DPP lawmaker Lin Kuo-hua (林國華) said that the Ministry of Justice (法務部) should begin its investigation of the case and find out who actually accepted the bribes.
"Yeh and Chang accused those who have endorsed the amendment without presenting any evidence," the DPP's Lin said.
"It's actually not fair to those who did not accept the money but still endorsed the bill. If you want to point the finger at somebody, you need to back it up with evidence. Now, more and more lawmakers will drop their endorsement because nobody wants to be misunderstood."
KMT lawmaker Hsu Shu-po (許舒博), who proposed the amendment, said he would stand by it.
"We need the amendment to regulate these video-game arcades so they can be legalized," Hsu said.
"By doing so, we can create more job opportunities. ... So I'll keep up the fight."
In response to lawmakers' requests for an investigation, the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation said that Yeh and Chang's accusation had not been verified but would investigate if necessary.
"We do not have a list of those lawmakers who allegedly accepted bribes," said an anonymous senior officer at the bureau.
"However, investigators will do what they must do when the time comes."
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS