The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) could reconsider its decision to temporarily suspend the hiring of new Filipino workers, depending on the attitude of a visiting Philippine envoy toward the diplomatic dispute that triggered the move, the council minister said yesterday, Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said yesterday.
Wang said any review of the measure to more tightly screen Filipino workers applying to work in Taiwan would consider many factors, including the message and goodwill brought by envoy Manuel Roxas, who is expected to arrive in Taipei today.
Roxas is visiting Taiwan to try to ease tensions between Taipei and Manila that were sparked when the Philippines deported 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China on Feb. 2, an act condemned by Taiwan as an infringement of its sovereignty and a violation of legal practice.
The council responded on Feb. 8 by lengthening the application process for Filipinos wanting to work in Taiwan to four months, from the previous seven to 12 days, effectively freezing the hiring of Filipinos by local companies.
The Philippines’ respect for Taiwan as a country and ongoing communications between Taipei and Manila on crime will also be factors in the review, Wang said.
Asked if it was fair to sanction Manila by restricting opportunities for migrant workers, Wang said there was no other alternative, including economic sanctions, that would not have affected the interests of Filipino workers.
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
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
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