Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and other DPP legislators yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of filing a false report on political donations of NT$670 million (US$19.25 million) and requested that prosecutors investigate a recent claim made by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
After visiting Chen at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei County, yesterday, Southern Taiwan Society director Cheng Yu (鄭煜) said Chen had told him that two “important individuals” had each made donations of NT$1 billion to Ma in the hope that they would be made premier.
Ker said he had heard Chen talk about the issue before, adding that no one believed Ma had only spent NT$670 million on his presidential campaign.
Prosecutors should look into Ma’s campaign expenditure report, Ker said, adding it was unfair that only Chen would be investigated on such matters.
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) agreed with Ker that an investigation should be launched, as did DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德), who said that although he had not heard Chen talk about the matter, he believed the former president had good reasons for making such allegations.
Lai also questioned how some businesses had so readily admitted to making donations to DPP presidential and vice presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) election campaign while not making any donations to Ma.
How is this possible, given that many companies are generally perceived as pan-blue, he asked.
Looking at the manner in which the Special Investigation Panel had investigated Chen, Lai said prosecutors should also investigate the pan-blue camp.
He said he hoped prosecutors would launch an investigation based on the information provided by Chen and make the results public.
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