The People First Party (PFP) yesterday filed an administrative lawsuit asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction against the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) campaign to hold a referendum on whether the nation should apply to the UN using the name "Taiwan."
The PFP also filed an administrative lawsuit against the Cabinet, demanding that it overturn a decision made by its Appeal Committee, which overturned the Referendum Review Committee's rejection of the referendum proposal.
The appeal committee's ruling meant that the DPP could proceed with a second-stage petition once the Central Election Commission has verified the authenticity of 90,000 signatures collected in the first stage of the application to hold a referendum.
"The PFP is not against direct democracy," PFP Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (
The PFP lawmaker said the DPP's UN referendum was a bid for "de jure independence" because "the issue of changing the country's name is involved in the [DPP's] proposal."
Chang said the PFP supported the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) proposal to hold a referendum on the country's bid without specifying the name "Taiwan" be used.
The KMT proposal would ask the public whether the government should apply for membership in the UN and other international organizations using "a practical name and flexible strategy," which the KMT said would increase the chances of being accepted.
KMT Legislator Su Chi (
"The DPP's proposal is to change the nation's name, but our proposal is merely about the nation's re-entry into the UN. According to my understanding, no one from the US has expressed opposition to this," Su said.
In related news, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday the rejection of the nation's application by the UN Secretary-General's Office would not stop the nation from eventually joining the UN.
"In order to defend the nation's dignity and sovereignty, we will continue to fight this `holy war,'" she said. "Holding a referendum is only one of the options. What is more important is to win a battle in terms of an international lawsuit."
On Monday, President Chen Shui-bian (
In a separate setting yesterday, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
"The application for UN membership is legitimate and deserves the public's full support. The UN Secretariat should not have rejected the application," Ma said.
Ma said the 23 million citizens of Taiwan deserved a representative at the UN to protect their rights.
"International relations and cross-strait relations are equally important ... The KMT will continue the effort to rejoin the UN with flexibility," he said.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
GROWING TIES: The CGA is planning a goodwill mission to the Philippines, in what would be the first time since 1975 a Taiwanese paramilitary vessel has visited the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) plans to significantly expand its participation in international security cooperative frameworks and its operational capabilities, a budget proposal for next year showed. The budget indicates a transformation of the CGA from a maritime law enforcement arm into a national defense and intelligence gathering entity capable of tackling larger regional security matters. The proposal showed that personnel from the coast guard’s Intelligence Division and Special Action Support Center are to participate in high-level national security talks with the US. As the CGA has dealt with China’s rising “gray zone” threats around Taiwan, it has become a valuable asset to
A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: Beijing sent two China Coast Guard vessels to escort a ‘supposedly private research ship,’ a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday confirmed that it had recently deployed three patrol vessels to waters in Taiwan’s overlapping exclusive economic zone with the Philippines to monitor three Chinese vessels. CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said the agency regularly monitors Chinese vessels around Taiwan, and that the deployment south of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, was carried out in accordance with standard procedures. He added that the waters fall within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines, which extend 200 nautical miles (370km) from their coastlines. Hsieh made the comments when asked about a
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