DPP Legislators Lin Chung-mo (林重謨) and Chou Yia-shu (邱雅淑) yesterday alleged that more than five legislators have interfered with the tendering process for an NT$10 billion unmanned electronic toll system for use on the nation's freeways.
At a press conference yesterday, the lawmakers said that those involved, whom they declined to name, were all re-elected in last December's legislative election and hail from all parties except for the TSU.
They said that if the legislators continue to interfere, they would not hesitate to name them.
Lin said that they had "strongly recommended" certain candidates to serve as judges in the tendering process while pressing Chunghwa Telecom, which is in charge of the tendering process, to favor a system incorporating infrared technology over a microwave-based alternative.
"Although over 90 percent of countries with electronic toll systems on freeways use the microwave system, Chunghwa Telecom (
The legislators also questioned Chunghwa Telecom's motive for requiring that all testing of constructed systems must last for 18 months, since they said only EFCON, as the only participant in the previous trials, could meet that requirement.
Asked whether they are alleging criminal activity, Chung Wei-da (鍾維達), a representative from Lin's office said that whether those involved have broken the law will depend on the judgement of investigators currently probing the matter.
The project to establish an electronic sensor toll system to replace manned toll stations was originally scheduled for completion next September. The project is now on hold.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater