Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien said yesterday the government watchdog would look into the responsibilities of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) in the government’s handling of the Typhoon Morakot emergency.
A number of Control Yuan members have said that they would like to submit a report on the subject to the legislature, the organ authorized by the Constitution to impeach the president and vice president.
In accordance with the additional articles to the Constitution, the nation’s president or vice president can be removed from their posts if Grand Justices of the Judicial Yuan uphold an impeachment motion initiated by the legislature.
PHOTO: YU HSUEH-LAN, TAIPEI TIMES
The impeachment process against the president or vice president can be initiated if the proposal is made by more than one-half of the lawmakers in the legislature and passed by more than two-thirds of legislators, whereupon it would be presented to the Judicial Yuan for adjudication.
Wang had previously said the highest-level official the Control Yuan could investigate was the premier, because it has no constitutional right to impeach Ma.
He did not say whether he supported presenting the Control Yuan’s report to the legislature, which is expected to be completed within three months.
The Control Yuan said that it would review the government’s handling of weather prediction, the disaster rescue system, flood prevention and management projects, soil and water conservation work, roads and bridges maintenance, national land planning, post-disaster accommodation for victims and reconstruction, post-disaster disease control and prevention, as well as price stabilization.
Meanwhile, Control Yuan members Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) and Yeh Yao-peng (葉耀鵬) said yesterday they would visit Kaohsiung City tomorrow to hear people’s complaints.
Huang said that he and a colleague, Chen Yung-hsiang (陳永祥), were assigned to investigate the tragedy in Siaolin Village (小林), Jiasian Township (甲仙), Kaohsiung County.
The mountain village was buried by mud and debris that were washed down by a powerful landslide caused by heavy rainfall on Aug. 8.
As many as 400 residents of the village are believed to have perished.
Huang said he would try to determine the extent of the damage done to the Pingpu Aboriginal village and culture and whether the surviving residents were properly resettled.
Chen has been tasked with finding out what doomed the village, Huang said.
ADDITONAL REPORTING BY CNA
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to