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Wu denies consulting PRC officials

Premier Wu Den-yih speaks to reporters in Pingtung County yesterday. PHOTO: TSAI TSUNG-HSIEN, TAIPEI TIMES

Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday denied allegations by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that he consulted with Chinese officials about his premiership in Hong Kong last Saturday after he was asked by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to take the position.

Wu told reporters he was invited to visit Hong Kong to learn about its mudslide warning system.

Hong Kong has control centers on mountain slopes that measure humidity. If the measurement reaches a certain level, a red alert evacuation is called, Wu said.

“I think this is a good method and suitable for Taiwan. I suggested it to President Ma,” he said.

Wu’s assistant said that the premier traveled to Hong Kong with his wife, son and daughter-in-law last Saturday, the day after Ma asked him to be premier.

Wu returned at noon the next day, his assistant said.

Wu met Ma that night and accepted the premiership.

Wu spent his first two days in his new post with typhoon survivors in southern Taiwan after Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) stepped down on Thursday to take political responsibility in the wake of damages following Typhoon Morakot. Mudslides and flooding caused by Morakot claimed the lives of more than 600 people.

In Pingtung County’s Linbian Township (林邊), the premier had an awkward exchange with Guanglin Village (光林) typhoon survivors who criticized him for not wearing rain boots, preventing him from closer inspection of the damage.

“Put on rain boots, and you can go in. Victims have been wearing rain boots for more than a month,” a victim said.

Wu said: “I wore rain boots the last time I came.”

“It’s unfair of you to just stand here and watch,” the victim said.

Wu walked away and met other survivors at a military camp where they were temporarily resettled.

In the face of the complaints by victims that reconstruction was slow and the subsidies for their demolished fish farm was insufficient, Wu agreed to increase the subsidy for each hectare of damaged fish farm from NT$10,000 to NT$30,000, on top of an additional NT$20,000 provided by Pingtung County Government. He also said that government agencies should speed up reconstruction.

During his visit to a Kaohsiung temple that is sheltering Siaolin (小林) villagers who lost their homes and family members when massive landslides buried the mountain village, Wu promised them that they will be able to move into prefabricated houses on Oct. 20 and stay there until permanent homes for them are completed.

In related news, legislators across party lines reached a consensus yesterday to suggest that the Executive Yuan withdraw its budget request for the next fiscal year because a new Cabinet had been sworn in.

At a cross-party negotiation session presided over by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), lawmakers agreed that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus would make the suggestion to the Executive Yuan.

Legislators said that the consensus was easily reached because the Constitution stipulates that the premier answer to the legislature.

The Executive Yuan submitted its budget request for the next fiscal year to the legislature for review on Monday, before the new Cabinet under Wu assumed office.

The Executive Yuan is requesting NT$1.5 trillion (US$46 billion) in revenue and NT$1.7 trillion in expenditure.

DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said the Executive Yuan also withdrew its fiscal budget request when then-premier Tang Fei (唐飛) was replaced by Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) in 2000, adding that the new Cabinet should follow suit.

KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said that he had given the legislature’s consensus to Wu, adding that he hoped the budget proposal would clear the legislative floor by Dec. 31 as required by law.

Meanwhile, the DPP decided not to follow a prior cross-party consensus to deal with a number of bills on the caucuses’ priority lists, but rather to have the new premier field questions from lawmakers.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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