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Legislature ignores flood bills

Residents from Dongshih Township, Chiayi County, protest in front of the Legislative Yuan yesterday, calling on the legislature to put politics aside and pass the flood prevention bill immediately. PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

Two special flood-control budget bills failed to clear the legislature yesterday due to confrontation between the pan-blue and the pan-green camps over procedures for reviewing the recall motion against the president.

Pan-blue legislators, who initiated the recall motion, came up with a version of the recall procedure, in which they demanded that the president or his representatives should attend the review meeting to give his response to the recall.

But pan-green legislators opposed the proposed procedure, arguing that there was no legal basis for either the president or his representatives to be required to attend the meeting.

The disagreement occupied the legislature for most of the day, even though cross-party negotiations on Thursday had specified that the two flood bills would receive due attention.

"Today's impasse proves that reviewing the budget bills was only an excuse the pan-blues used to convene a special legislative session," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) said. "The pan-blues are holding the flood-control budget bills hostage in order to force us to make a concession on their recall procedure."

"Reviewing the budget bills was only an excuse."

Chen Chin-jun, DPP caucus whip

The regulations governing recall of the president are specified in Article 44 of the Law Governing Legislators' Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法) which says that the president can choose to respond to the recall proposal in writing.

Pan-blue legislators said that the inadequacy of current recall regulations does not justify the DPP's refusal to negotiate an appropriate recall procedure.

"Since this is the first time the legislature is using its power to recall the president, we have to use this opportunity to establish constitutional precedents," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kao Su-po (高思博) said.

People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) said the pan-blue camp would mobilize supporters to besiege the legislature next week if the pan-green camp did not accept their proposed recall procedure.

The flood-control budget bills include NT$30.9 billion (US$0.95 billion) earmarked for an eight-year "Flood-prone Area Management Plan," which is expected to reduce flooding risks in around half of the flood-prone areas around the nation. This directly affects 2.5 million people.

Another NT$14 billion has been earmarked to improve the Shihmen Reservoir, which has been plagued by turbidity problems that periodically leave millions of residents in Taoyuan County without water.

Yesterday, a group of farmers from Yunlin County carrying rotten vegetables destroyed by last week's flooding in southern Taiwan gathered in front of the legislature urging lawmakers to pass the budget bill.

"We left before 3am this morning. We have to make people and legislators living in Taipei understand the havoc that flooding has caused," a farmer said.

One farmer in the group was so angry about the pan-blue camp blocking the budget bills that he threw a pail of water at a KMT caucus member's staff.

Meanwhile, a group of environmentalists led by the Green Party also gathered in the legislature, voicing their opposition to the flood-control bills.

"The budget bill will not resolve the flooding problem completely as most of the budget will be used for constructing dams, protecting embankments and upgrading pumping stations, which will do more damage to the environment," the group's statement said.
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