President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday remained divided on the details of their first meeting more than two years ago, with the main points of contention being the exact date of the meeting and who had requested it.
According to Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳), the meeting took place on July 10, 2000, at the Presidential Office, not on July 27 as Soong claimed.
Huang said the meeting was arranged through Huang Fang-yen (
Soong on Wednesday recalled he had one more meeting with the president in addition to the three already revealed publicly over the past two-and-a-half years and that the meeting was held on July 27, 2000.
Soong said Chen asked for the July 27 meeting because the president wanted to seek his advice on national affairs after the July 22 Pachang Creek tragedy.
Shown live on television, four construction workers drowned after being swept away in a flash flood after waiting stranded in the middle of the creek for more than two hours to be rescued.
The Presidential Office, however, denied this version of events.
"When the meeting was held on July 10, the Pachang Creek incident had not occurred and the political scene was stable," James Huang said. "President Chen didn't need to arrange a meeting with Chairman Soong to discuss affairs of the state. Therefore, what Chairman Soong said wasn't factual."
The spokesman, however, did not mention what issues were raised during the meeting.
Huang Fang-yen yesterday issued a statement confirming that he was invited by a friend to have lunch with Soong on July 10, and Soong asked him to help arrange a meeting with Chen.
Soong met Chen at around 8:30pm the same day, according to Huang Fang-yen.
Chen has alleged that Soong solicited him for key government positions, hinting that Soong met him on more occasions than publicly known.
Soong insists none of these meetings involved personal or partisan interests.
The PFP yesterday maintained that Soong had met Chen on July 27.
PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-ping (謝公秉) said he had checked with Soong's aides and found that there was no lunch appointment with Huang Fang-yen on Soong's schedule for July 10, 2000.
"Chairman Soong was having lunch with other people that day and Mr. Huang was not among the guests," Hsieh said.
RSS