Taiwan High Court presiding Judge Cheng Ya-ping (
The pan-blue camp-driven case has been heard by Cheng and her colleagues Wu Mo-yen (
The pan-blue alliance filed two lawsuits on behalf of its presidential candidates -- Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
The lawsuit, which alleges vote fraud took place and to which Cheng will render a verdict on Thursday, was the second of two lawsuits filed by the blue camp. The first suit sought to annul Chen's re-election, and on Nov. 4, Taiwan High Court Judge Wu Ching-yuan (
Cheng's husband, attorney Liu Shu-lun (
Yu's husband, attorney Lu Jung-hai (
However, Cheng remained neutral during the court proceedings. She even expressed disappointment with the pan-blue camp's lawyers during the first hearing on May 5.
"According to the vague indictment you presented, obviously, you did not try your best," Cheng said to the blue camp's legal team while presiding over the case.
"A lawsuit is not about complaining in court. It is about trying to persuade judges with strong arguments," Cheng said at the time.
She also said the blue camp's arguments were not clear and its attorneys failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their arguments.
"If you are angry, you will not be able to come up with a good argument," she told the blue camp's lawyers.
Prior to the May 5 hearings, Cheng complained about a Chinese-language newspaper report which claimed she and her fellow judges were biased in favor of the pan-blue camp. After the report, Cheng asked the lawyers of either side if they wanted to apply for new judges based on the allegations, but the lawyers said it was not necessary.
Ironically, Cheng, Wu and Yu were assigned to hear the case after the objectivity of the original judges was called into question.
Citing her Christian beliefs, Cheng said that those in the legal profession, whether they are judges, prosecutors, lawyers or court clerks, should try their best to deal with cases without passion or bias. "My job as a judge is to preside over every case as fairly as possible," she said.
Possessing a law degree from the National Taiwan University's Law School and a bachelor's degree from Soochow University, Cheng has devoted herself to the court system ever since she passed the national exam for judicial officials in 1979.
Unlike others who aspired to a legal profession out of a sense of justice, Cheng admitted she did not initially want to study law.
"I was considering transferring to accounting when I was still a freshman in university because I was not sure if this was what I wanted to do," she said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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