There was intense media speculation yesterday that Acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Council of Labor Affairs Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) would get new jobs in the Cabinet in a reshuffle which is expected to be announced later today. But at a press conference late last night Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) dismissed such rumors.
Both Chens met separately with Premier Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh also talked with Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (
As of press time last night, Hsieh was meeting with President Chen Shui-bian (
Whenever he was approached by reporters with questions about Chen Chi-mai and Chen Chu's jobs, Hsieh only said that he was waiting for the results of the investigation into the Thai labor riot in Kaohsiung earlier this month and that he had not made a decision on whether to accept their resignations.
Minister Without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄) has been given the job of deciding whether any government officials, including Chen Chi-mai and Chen Chu, should step down in order to take political responsibility for the incident.
Hsu's was supposed to present his findings to the premier by yesterday but an aide told reporters yesterday afternoon that Hsu's report would not be handed in until today.
Although Hsieh has repeatedly said that nobody would be blamed for the riot before Hsu's probe was completed, both Chen Chi-mai and Chen Chu have insisted upon resigning.
Over the weekend Hsieh said that he would try to keep both in the Cabinet even they left their current posts.
A Chinese-language newspaper speculated yesterday that Chen Chi-mai may become president of the Taiwan Salt Co (
The story said that Chen Chu may become a minister without portfolio and Su might get the Kaohsiung mayor's job.
At last night's press conference,Cho told reporters that both Chen Chi-mai and Chen Chu will leave their jobs and that no new posts had been arranged for them.
He told reporters that the candidates to replace the two would be decided upon last night but that he had no further information at that time on who they might be.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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