General Ting Yu-chou (丁渝洲), who recently resigned as secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC) in reaction to a proposed impeachment action against him, will lose his entire pension if he is impeached.
The development is a misfortune for Ting, but it is also a welcome result for a few people in the military.
The proposed move against Ting is based on a case of misappropriation of public funds by an ex-chief cashier of the National Security Bureau (NSB) that occurred during Ting's term as NSB director.
Ting resigned from his NSC post last week to show he is willing to take administrative responsibility for the misappropriation case if he is to be held responsible for it by the Committee on the Discipline of Public Functionaries under the Judicial Yuan. The committee is currently examining the grounds for an impeachment action against Ting -- which was proposed by the Control Yuan.
If the proposed impeachment is approved by the committee, Ting, 59, will lose both the title of three-star general and the retirement pension due to him as a three-star general.
Because Ting is still an acting general, his would-be impeachment and forced retirement will benefit a few people in the military.
Lieutenant General Chen Pan-chih (陳邦治), chief of the reserves command, is to be one of the beneficiaries.
Chen is from the Marines division and a native Taiwanese. He was scheduled to retire last fall but put off the plan after he was told that he would be promoted to three-star general, defense sources said.
Chen accepted the arrangement but he is still waiting for the promised promotion because there is currently no three-star general position available for him.
Because of the military restructuring in recent years, the general posts have been reduced from 13 to 12.
Most of the 12 generals have just taken their new posts in a two-wave reshuffle of military leadership over the past two months.
If Ting is forced to retire from the military because of the impeachment, there will suddenly be a three-star general position available for Chen.
Chen, 59, will have no choice but to retire if he cannot get promoted to the rank of second-class general by November, when he will reach the 60-year-old retirement ceiling for a second-class general.
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