KMT Chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma, who recently received a letter from the Taiwan Caucus -- a pro-Taiwan group in the US House of Representatives -- urging him to work for early passage of the arms procurement package, said that the KMT could agree to some items in the package being financed with a special budget.
Ma said he gives his "conditional support" for the arms procurement package, adding that a due amount of spending on national defense is necessary and that his party should review the issue in a rational way.
However, Sun Ta-chien (
PFP Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
Lin said he will soon call on KMT Chairman-elect Ma to discuss the arms procurement issues with him.
In related news, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Saturday that it has yet to decide on which items of an arms procurement package to place in its regular annual budget, as it has yet to receive directives from the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan.
MND officials were responding to media reports that in order to facilitate the passage of the arms procurement package by the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan, the MND will not insist on all three items of the NT$480 billion (US$15.24 billion) package being financed by a special budget.
The three items in the arms procurement from the US to be financed over a 15-year period are six PAC-III Patriot anti-missile batteries, eight diesel-electric submarines, and a squadron of 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.
According to the media reports, the MND hopes to have the submarines and aircraft financed by a special budget, with the Patriot batteries to be included in the regular annual budget.
One day after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said that certain items of the arms procurement package could be financed with funds to be appropriated for the military's regular annual budget, a spokesman of the Executive Yuan said Friday that the Cabinet will make necessary adjustments in its annual budget for next year but that the MND will study which items, the amount, and the financing period of the package to be listed in the regular annual budget.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS