President donates his shares in FTV to disabled charity

The Presidential Office yesterday announced that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had decided to donate his stock holdings in Formosa Television and NT$100,000 in cash to a foundation for the disabled.

The move followed KMT and PFP complaints of double standards in the government's media policy after Chen declared on Tuesday that he would rid the media of political and military influence.

"President Chen has decided to donate his 4,000 shares in a private terrestrial TV station, plus NT$100,000 in cash, to the Eden Social Welfare Foundation," Presidential Office spokesman Huang Chih-fang (黃志芳) said.

According to a property report released by the Control Yuan on Wednesday, Chen holds 4,000 shares in Formosa Television Co (FTV), whose chairman is DPP Legislator Trong Chai (蔡同榮).

The revelation prompted attacks from the KMT and PFP yesterday morning that Chen was cheating the public by not following through on his vow to remove political and military influence from the nation's media organizations.

KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said yesterday morning that Chen's media reform applies only to other politicians but not himself.

PFP Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) demanded that Chen clarify whether he has influenced the news judgment of FTV.

At the DPP's Central Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday, Chen vowed to remove political and military influence from the media, and would force party members to quit their positions at media organizations.

But Huang said that Chen had only learned of his stock holdings from media reports yesterday morning.

Huang explained that Chen contributed NT$20,000 to the formation of the nation's fourth terrestrial TV station, FTV, when he was a legislator in the early 1990s.

When the station was formally founded in 1997, such contributions were converted into stock, giving Chen 4,000 shares in the company, Huang said.

The spokesman added that Chen was unaware of holding shares in FTV and learned about his take from SinoPac Securities, which handles FTV's stock affairs.

"But he has never been involved in FTV's affairs since it was launched," Huang said, adding that SinoPac Securities had never informed Chen that he holds 4,000 shares in FTV.

The Eden Social Welfare Foundation welcomed the donation.

The foundation's secretary-general, Lin Chin-chuan (林錦川), said that the donation would be used for a fund set up by the foundation to support evangelical seminary students, who would be required to assist people suffering from disabilities, after the student's studies.

The Control Yuan, meanwhile, told reporters that Chen's 4,000 shares are worth some NT$40,000, meaning he is not required to report them as personal property.

According to the regulations, civil servants are required to report their share holdings only when the stocks cost more than NT$1 million.

The Eden Foundation was established in December 1982 by the late Liu Hsia (劉俠) to care for the needs of people who suffer from disabilities.

Liu passed away last Saturday after allegedly being attacked a day earlier by her Indonesian caregiver.

The caregiver is currently in police custody and said by doctors to be suffering from a psychological condition caused by severe emotional stress .