A controversial arms procurement bill has advanced to the legislative agenda after opposition lawmakers apparently "forgot" to oppose it in the procedure committee.
The long-stalled NT$6.27 billion (US$192 million) supplemental budget, which would provide initial funding for the purchase of weapons from the US, was placed on the legislative agenda for the first time yesterday.
If the agenda set by yesterday's procedure committee is confirmed at Friday's legislative session, the budget will be referred for initial review.
The supplemental budget includes initial funding for the purchase of P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, the upgrading of PAC-2 anti-missile batteries, partial funding for the design of submarines, as well as NT$700 million to build an airstrip on Taiping Island.
The government originally sought the creation of a special budget to fund the purchase of eight diesel electric submarines, six Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defense batteries and 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft in 2003.
Having failed to get this budget approved, the government is now requesting that the funds, slashed from the original NT$610.8 billion to NT$340 billion, be sourced from the Ministry of National Defense's annual budget.
People First Party (PFP) lawmakers, who have strongly opposed the arms deal, made no motion to block the budget yesterday, as they have repeatedly in the past. The lawmakers later said that they had simply "forgot" to propose a motion to block the bill.
PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
"We will propose a motion to send the budget back to the procedure committee on Friday," he said.
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