Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday urged the convener of the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Shih Chi-yang (
The DPP officials said such commentary only exposed the essence of the committee, which was contempt for the law.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
In a news conference held after the DPP's weekly Central Standing Committee, the officials showed video footage from two call-in TV shows aired Monday night in which committee member Yeh Yao-peng (
"Yeh's behavior gave the game away. The investigative committee is simply a means for the pan-blue camp to denigrate the president," DPP Deputy Secretary-General Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said.
"We strongly suspected that the pan-blue camp wanted to use this committee to overturn the results of the presidential election in case it loses the election lawsuit that will be judged soon," Chung said.
Chung said committee members are supposed to obey a gag order, but Yeh has been talking about his theories on shootings ever since March 20 and has continued to do so despite being chosen as a committee member.
Chung asked Shin to make it clear to the committee members that they cannot comment on the case.
"Otherwise, people will quickly perceive the illegitimacy of this organization," Chung said.
According to Chung, Vice President Annette Lu (
In related news, Chung said DPP headquarters would not get involved in the debate over whether the party should expel former Examination Yuan member Tsai Wen-pin (
Chung said that the party branch in Tainan City will handle the case.
"But it is obvious that Tsai diverges from the party's stance," Chung said.
Earlier in the day, the DPP launched four campaign teams for the December legislative elections.
The teams will be led by DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), Premier Yu Shyi-kun, Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to help boost momentum for the campaign.
According to Chang, 108 campaign rallies will be held around the country, starting this Saturday and running through the middle of next month.
Each of the four campaign team leaders is responsible for hosting 27 rallies.
Chung said the DPP is quite optimistic about its election chances, based on its latest poll.
He said the pan-green camp has reached the "magic number" of 110 to 115 probable legislative seats, moving the DPP closer to its goal of dominating the Legislative Yuan.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716