The Executive Yuan yesterday called on the legislature to immediately amend the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事事件真相調查委員會條例) and for the committee to stop its operations without delay.
"We are grateful for the constitutional interpretation delivered by the Council of Grand Justices, who ruled that core articles of the statute violated the Constitution and encroaches on basic human rights," Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) told a press conference held yesterday after the grand judges ruled that some of the legislation's clauses were unconstitutional and that they should instantaneously be scrapped.
Chen also called on the legislature to immediately review the statute and on all political parties to safeguard constitutional order.
Not Afraid
"We're as eager as everybody else to find out the truth behind the March 19 shooting incident and we're not afraid of being summoned for investigation," he said.
"However, any investigation has to be conducted constitutionally and legitimately," he said.
In addition to calling on opposition parties to jointly create an environment for political reconciliation, Chen urged the legislature to take heed of future legislation in order to avoid making the same mistake again.
Describing the statute as a "constitutional fiend," Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chi-hsiung (許志雄) said that the illegal and unconstitutional committee should immediately stop operating, because the committee members were not endorsed by the legislature nor appointed by the legislative speaker.
Little Is Legal
He said that although the grand judges did not rule the entire legislation unconstitutional, they ruled that little of the committee was in fact legal.
Chen called on the committee to immediately stop operations and let the judicial system take over the case.
The Presidential Office yesterday said it respected the Grand Justices' interpretation.
Meanwhile, the party caucuses had mixed opinions on the Grand Justices' constitutional interpretation.
The pan-green camp voiced its approval, while the pan-blue camp questioned the Grand Justices' credibility and impartiality. A battle on the interpretation, the statute and the amendment can be expected, judging by the non-reconciliatory tones of the caucuses yesterday.
"We are glad about the interpretation. We can see from the outcome that the core articles in the Statute have been declared unconstitutional and that the committee should become ineffective," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
"We are demanding that the committee cease its operations, and the legislature to amend the statute immediately," Ker said.
Another DPP caucus whip, Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅), further demanded that the committee disperse its members immediately and return all documents it had acquired from other government agencies.
Demand
"We also demand the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) apologize to the public for problems caused by the committee," Lee said.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus held a similar opinion.
"We approve of the interpretation, but we also think that there is a greater part of the statute that is illegal than the part accounted for by the Grand Justices," TSU caucus whip Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) said.
Expressing his disappointment with the grand justices' ruling, KMT spokesman Chang Jng-kung (
The PFP caucus showed no signs of softening on the issue either.
"We are not surprised about the outcome, since the committee is investigating Mr. Chen Shui-bian (
Liu said the committee was not an agency within the legislature and the grand justices should not have recognized the committee as one, and the reason that the public needed the independent committee was exactly because the justices could not find the truth behind the March 19 shooting incident.
"We insist that the committee continue its operations, and, meanwhile, we would ask the Control Yuan to investigate and discipline the Ministry of the Interior for refusing to cooperate with the committee. We also urge the public to refuse cooperation with the grand justices on the interpretation," Liu said.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths
Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today. Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17. Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production. However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
RSS