The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-dominated legislature did not pass a controversial draft act on farm village revival as planned by the party yesterday because of a failure by party members to reach consensus.
Vice Legislative Speaker Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) resolved that legislators should take a break to negotiate the size of a proposed farm village rejuvenation fund shortly after staffers of the legislature began the second reading of the bill.
Some KMT legislators voiced opposition to a motion by the KMT caucus to reduce the size of the proposed fund from NT$200 billion (US$6.2 billion) to NT$150 billion.
PHOTO: CNA
At press time, legislators were still negotiating.
The KMT surprised many by including the draft act on the agenda of the provisional plenary session held to review the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China.
The session is scheduled to conclude today.
The draft farm village act had been tabled since causing controversy in December 2008, with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and a number of civic groups accusing the KMT of using the bill to buy electoral support.
The DPP on Friday walked out of the plenary session to protest against a ruling skipping review of the ECFA and has not participated in reviews of any bills on the agenda since.
Meanwhile, the legislature also approved an amendment to the Disaster Prevention and Rescue Act (災害防救法), obliging the military to actively assist with disaster relief.
Under the amendment, the Ministry of National Defense has the authority to bring in personnel to help with disaster relief.
The amendment also authorizes the central and local governments to establish permanent offices responsible for disaster prevention and rescue.
At present, similar government organizations are only task-oriented.
The National Fire Agency under the Ministry of the Interior will also be transformed into the National Disaster Prevention and Rescue Agency, while the Executive Yuan will be obliged to submit a white paper on disaster prevention to the legislature every year.
The amendment was proposed after mudslides induced by days of torrential rain brought by Typhoon Morakot devastated southern Taiwan in August last year.
“Despite the absence of the DPP, the KMT has included the DPP’s opinions in the final amendment out of respect for the opposition,” KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said after the bill was passed.
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