More than NT$85 million (US$2.9 million) in donations collected by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were sent to the Japanese Red Cross Society yesterday, a party spokesperson said.
The announcement came as questions were directed at the party on when the contributions for Japanese relief efforts would be sent, following last month’s massive earthquake and tsunami.
CONTROVERSY
Earlier this month, the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China stirred controversy when it said it would send the almost NT$2 billion in donations it had received nationwide as of Thursday last week in stages rather than as a lump sum.
The move led to criticism from online groups and lawmakers that many donors had expected their funds to be used for immediate relief efforts.
Asked about the Red Cross Society’s efforts in the legislature yesterday, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) defended the decision not to send a lump sum by saying that collection efforts were ongoing.
The local Red Cross expects to publish a final tally of donations after May 10, when the donation drive for Japan ends.
Instead, Jiang told DPP Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) that he should “go back and ask the DPP why it hasn’t sent out the NT$83.5 million it has collected for Japanese relief efforts.”
In a statement, the DPP said it sent the entire NT$85.4 million it received yesterday morning to the Japanese Red Cross, less than two days after collection efforts ended.
‘NO DELAY’
“The entire sum was sent,” DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said. “There was no delay, the money wasn’t sent in stages and the entire process was transparent.”
Lin said the party did not take any administrative costs out of the figure sent, which “dollar for dollar, represented what the DPP had received.”
“Jiang’s remarks were designed to take the spotlight off the Red Cross [of the ROC] controversy,” Lin said. “I don’t think switching the focus of the controversy to the opposition party is a way of [taking] responsibility.”
GOODWILL
The concerns with how much of the donations for Japan have actually been sent are seen as a blemish on the country’s goodwill, which has been widely reported by the Japanese press.
The Mainichi Shimbun wrote yesterday that Taiwan’s donations were “possibly the largest amount of money per person donated from any country since the disaster.”
Taiwan’s total donations of NT$4.85 billion, it said, exceed both South Korea’s and the US’.
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