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.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
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