President Chen Shui-bian (
A press release from the Presidential Office's public affairs department yesterday said that the two resignations were reviewed seriously.
"The Presidential Office would like to adopt higher standards in evaluating the case, hoping that investigators would probe into it and get clues sooner," the statement said.
According to the department, the president fully backs the prosecutors investigating the case and believes that the rank of those being investigated should not be a factor in any probe.
What role, if any, either Chen Che-nan or Chen Min-hsien played in the hiring of Thai workers for the Kaohsiung system has been the center of a scandal over the project in the wake of a riot by some of the Thai laborers in late August.
Investigators are trying to trace the links between the two men and the decision to hire Thai workers to help build the MRT system.
The pan-blue camp was quick to criticize the president's decision to accept the resignations.
The People First Party (PFP) caucus said Chen Che-nan's resignation was a bid to protect a higher-ranking official and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus asked that he be barred from leaving the country.
KMT caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (
PFP Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said the resignations must not be seen as the end of the matter because the truth is not yet known.
PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) questioned President Chen's rejection of Chen Che-nan's plan to visit Japan last month and asked the Presidential Office to explain why a presidential adviser needed the president's approval to go overseas.
Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) got into a heated debate with KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) over the resignations and Chen Che-nan's travel plans during a meeting of the legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
When Chen Che-nan asked for leave last month to visit the World Expo in Aichi his request was rejected by the Presidential Office on the grounds that he needed to stay in the country to help with the prosecutors' investigation.
Ma told Kuo that the president thought that it wasn't the right time for Chen Che-nan to be making a foreign trip.
Ma rejected Kuo's assertion that the Presidential Office had turned a blind eye to allegations of abuse that arose in the wake of the riot.
Ma said that President Chen had told him that he would be extremely distraught if Thai workers hired to build Kaohsiung's subway system were found to have been exploited.
Meanwhile, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office said Chen Che-nan has not been barred from leaving the country.
Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝), spokesman for the prosecutors office, said yesterday that prosecutors have reviewed records of calls made by Chen Che-nan, Chen Min-hsien and Wang Tsai-pi (王彩碧), a woman working for a labor brokerage with connections in Thailand.
"We have collected their [entry and exit] records from the immigration office and phone records of calls they made in July 2002, when all three were in Thailand," Chang said.
According to Chang, Wang made more than 20 calls to Chen Che-nan during that July trip and he called her at least four times.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
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
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
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