The Ministry of National Defense (MND) is embroiled in a security row after it was revealed that 10 military ID cards had been stolen from a barracks in the past year.
Two volunteer soldiers serving in the Air Force have received phone calls from illegal mafia-run banks asking them to repay up to NT$50,000 in loans that were illegally taken out under their names.
It is believed that most of the other ID cards have also been used to underwrite loans, with the victims yet to receive overdue notices. The military had canceled the 10 ID cards, ministry officers said.
Opposition party legislators said the security row was another example of a breakdown in military discipline after the main suspect in the case was identified as a former sergeant surnamed Ti (狄), who was discharged on June 16.
According to a breakdown of events compiled by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Sue-ying's (黃淑英) office, the stolen ID cards were found to be missing from the office of a company commander in March. They had been kept there for safekeeping since the end of last year.
Huang said the military later recovered two of the cards by paying NT$1,000 each to the underground banks that had them in their possession — a claim military officers denied. Air Force officers said yesterday that the two cards were returned without payment.
The case is now under investigation by military prosecutors, an Air Force representative said, adding that Ti’s whereabouts were unknown, while efforts to contact him through his family had been unsuccessful.
Military officials also said the company commander who lost the ID cards, surnamed Lee (李), had been disciplined for holding on to them rather than returning them, adding that the camp commander had been transferred to a non-managerial position.
The case comes after an Air Force officer was disciplined on Sunday for posting pictures on his blog of himself in full flight gear sitting in what looked like the cockpit of a fighter aircraft.
Last month, an Air Force pilot was grounded after the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that he had been blackmailed for NT$4.5 million (US$140,000) by the family of a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair.
“This is the latest in a long line of problems with discipline in the armed forces,” Huang said in the legislature yesterday.
She said the military had failed to protect the privacy of Taiwanese soldiers.
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