The pan-blue camp swept all the committee convener seats in the legislature yesterday, leaving the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with no authority to decide committee agendas during this legislative session.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators secured 15 seats, while Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) Legislator Kang Shih-ju (康世儒) won the remaining seat.
DPP lawmakers were able to win the same number of ballots as their KMT counterparts in the Economics Committee and the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee votes, but the odds went against the DPP during the subsequent drawing of lots.
The Organic Act of Legislative Committees (立法院各委員會組織法) states that committee chiefs enjoy the power to convene committee meetings and arrange the agenda.
The result of the elections went against the consensus reached during cross-party negotiations on Thursday last week that the pan-green camp could head the Economics Committee and the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) promised to enhance communication with the DPP within the committees.
DPP Policy Research Committee head Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) downplayed the party’s defeat in the committee elections, saying the DPP would still supervise the KMT administration.
KMT legislators Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) will head the Internal Administration Committee, while KMT legislators Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝) and Liu Shen-liang (劉盛良) will take over the Foreign and National Defense Committee.
KMT lawmakers Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) and Wu Ching-chih (吳清池) will be in charge of the Economics Committee, while the KMT’s Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and the NPSU’s Kang will preside over the Finance Committee.
KMT Legislator Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) will head the Education and Culture Committee with her colleague Chiang Yi-hsiung (江義雄).
Transportation Committee heads are KMT legislators Yang Jen-fu (楊仁福) and Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝), while KMT legislators Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) and Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) will co-chair the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
KMT lawmakers Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) and Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) will convene the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee sessions.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS