The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is looking for help from the Control Yuan to help deal with assets improperly obtained by political parties, a DPP legislative leader said this week.
"The DPP will ask for help from external bodies, such as the Control Yuan, to pressure the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to team up with other parties to complete the statute regarding the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties (
"The legislation hopefully will provide a legal foundation for the disposition of assets improperly gained by the former ruling party and solve the controversy of the land occupation and wealth of the National Women's League of the ROC," a wartime foundation instituted by Soong Mayling, Ker said.
The issue of the league's occupation of government land and an estimated wealth of NT$70 billion came up with Soong's death on Oct. 23. She was chair of the KMT-affiliation organization until her passing.
The controversy surrounding the Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center (
The center was built on land belonging to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). The land is estimated to be worth NT$8 billion.
Both institutes enjoyed support from the ministry since Soong founded them in 1950 and 1962, respectively.
"The DPP is aware of the mission to resolve disputed ownership or occupation of government resources by persons or groups close to the former KMT regime. We consider the statute a priority since it would help to solve the asset debate," Ker said.
Sunshine bills
Along with the draft lobby law (遊說法), the statute governing political donations (政治獻金管理條例), the government information disclosure bill (資訊公開法) and the political party law (政黨法), the party assets disposition statute was dubbed a "political sunshine bill" by the DPP and considered a priority for this legislative session.
"At the moment, we are working to gather new evidence to challenge the legitimacy of the former ruling party and its rulers' occupation of government properties," Ker said. "The findings will be presented to Control Yuan members later to go along with member Huang Huang-hsiung's (黃煌雄) investigation into how the KMT obtained its incredible wealth and assets."
Ker's remark came up after DPP Legislator Kuo Wen-chen (
"The foundation's gratis tenancy and preferential treatment by the government is unreasonable. .... The league's original function of fighting against communism and the USSR is definitely out of date," Kuo said.
He advised the ministry to review the preferential treatment accorded the foundation and called for an overall study of the legitimacy of the league's ownership of public donations for greeting and appreciating troops.
"Furthermore, the clear-cut political preference of league members raises concerns they might violate the rule of neutrality by using the foundation's privileged wealth and resources to campaign for certain presidential candidates next year," Kuo said.
Acknowledging the offer to the foundation was unfair, the ministry had contacted the league in August to discuss terminating the contract, Tang said.
The ministry was also working on retrieving the land from the medical center, which was turned into a general hospital in 1991.
Reprimand
The ministry was corrected by the Control Yuan in 1996 for failing to take back the occupied government lands.
"The MND shoulders the responsibility for allowing the disconnect between the real use and the written purpose of the land lease," the Control Yuan investigation concluded.
Termination of the illegitimate use of the lands by its tenants, including the National Women's League and the Cheng Hsin hospital, was imperative, Control Yuan members urged.
Commenting on the correction, Ker added, "A legal formulation to guide the handling of ill-gotten party assets would help government agencies secure the retrieval."
But KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (
"The proposed statute made two mistakes. First, according to the DPP, the KMT must prove its innocence in obtaining the properties. Second, the KMT has been presumed to be guilty of occupying its assets from the view of the proposed law," Tsai said.
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