Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh's (施明德) anti-corruption campaign yesterday proposed an amendment to the Anti-Corruption Statute (貪污治罪條例) that would include an article which stipulates government officials who live in luxury explain where their wealth came from.
The proposed amendment also includes a regulation allowing prosecution of the president and the first family for crimes committed during their term, after the president leaves office.
The Constitution protects the president from prosecution for criminal acts but he can be prosecuted for acts of rebellion or treason.
The campaign said that an article allowing the prosecution of non-government personnel who help government officials commit corruption has also been added to the proposal because in many corruption cases, government officials find a third party willing to accept blame for any improper conduct so they can evade punishment.
Anyone who refused an investigation into their property would be punished.
Campaign organizer Yao Li-ming (姚立明) told a press conference that requiring government officials to explain the origin of their wealth is a global trend and was an important way of telling whether someone is corrupt.
The UN Treaty against Corruption passed in 2003 regulates that government officials need to explain how they manage to live such a lifestyle if they obviously cannot afford to do so according to their income, Yao said.
John Wei (魏千峰), who is also an organizer of the campaign, said that over the past decade, many international organizations have come to regard "fighting corruption" as a basic human right and therefore such an article does not contradict the legal principle of "innocent until proven guilty."
Shih told the press that his campaign had been discussing how to help the country establish a sound judicial system.
He said he hoped the proposal would be put on the legislative agenda in the Procedure Committee meeting to be held today, moved directly to a second reading on the legislative floor by Friday and passed into law by Dec. 9, the same day of the year-end mayoral election.
Shih's campaign, led by campaign organizer Wei Yao-chien (魏耀乾), visited party caucuses in the legislature after the press conference.
The proposal gained the support of all party caucuses, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus and People First Party caucus endorsing it.
The Non-Partisan Solidarity Union also showed its support for the proposal, while the DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union caucuses said they supported the proposal but hoped Shih's campaign could also support the recovery of the KMT's stolen assets.
A Chinese military drone was spotted conducting reconnaissance off Taitung County as President William Lai (賴清德) visited Pingtung County this morning to inspect a drill of the armed forces’ precision-strike capabilities, prompting the military to closely monitor its actions. Today was the final day of a three-day military exercise at Jioupeng Base (九鵬基地) to test the joint combat capabilities of the armed forces and coast guard. The exercise began on Wednesday simulating air defense interception and yesterday tested long-range strike capabilities and new air defense weapons. This morning, the military conducted a final exercise involving air defense, anti-ship and drone operations. Military sources said
OCT. 31: The antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Eraflu have been distributed to about 4,000 medical facilities nationwide for people in seven groups who develop flu-like symptoms As the domestic influenza epidemic enters its peak season and continues to escalate, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday announced that publicly funded influenza antiviral drugs for seven eligible groups have been extended to Oct. 31, allowing those who develop flu-like symptoms to receive the medication without undergoing a rapid influenza test. The CDC has extended the expanded use of flu antiviral drugs to seven groups: healthcare and influenza-prevention personnel; residents and staff at nursing homes, long-term care facilities and similar institutions; kindergarten and daycare workers and home-based caregivers; students from kindergarten through high school, vocational high school and the
RARE PEEK: The footage released showed one of the bears staying in a cave for as long as 70 days, providing the first record of Formosan black bear’s overwintering The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released tracking records of released Formosan black bears for the first time, showing that they get much closer to human settlements than previously thought. The agency said it had captured two bears, Da Qu-ali (達古阿里) and Aziman (阿里曼), in indigenous villages in Hualien County and began to track them with a camera-mounted satellite collar after releasing them back into the wild. The results confirmed that the bears have moved from deep mountain areas into lowland hills closer to human communities, leading to an increase in human-bear conflicts, it said. The agency has introduced artificial intelligence-assisted early
Taiwanese Tsai Chin-shu (蔡金樹), who had been imprisoned in China for engaging in activity that “endangers national security,” said on Facebook on Friday that he has returned to Taiwan. Tsai, chairman of the Southern Taiwan Union of Cross-strait Relations Associations, had traveled frequently between Taiwan and China for years, and at one time ran a trading company in China’s Pingtan. In July 2018, he traveled to Quanzhou, Fujian Province, to attend a cross-strait food trade fair and stayed at a hotel in Xiamen. He checked out the following day and then disappeared. His family had made repeated appeals to the authorities
RSS