Residents from Erchong Borough (二重) in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Sanchong District (三重) gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday morning to protest against the special municipality’s compulsory acquisition of their homes.
During the protest, residents placed fruit on tables as an offering to the gods and burned incense sticks.
“God, please find out for us who will profit from tearing our homes down,” the protesters said.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The forced demolition is scheduled to take place at the end of the year as part of the city’s Tamsui River “Manhattan Riverside” project, which will expand the width of a road that goes through the neighborhood in Erchong Borough by demolishing 69 buildings.
The residents filed a petition with the Presidential Office after the protest in the morning.
Earlier this week, a separate petition was filed with the Control Yuan, requesting that it look into the case to determine if the special municipal government had violated administrative procedures or had broken the law.
An elderly resident surnamed Wu (吳) wept as she said she had washed clothes for more than 40 years to buy a home in the area, but now the government was taking it away from her.
“Please don’t tear it down, or at least give us a new home to live in,” she said. “We don’t know what to do ... how can we live?”
Another resident, surnamed Chuang (莊), said 20 percent of his home had already been torn down for a road expansion 30 years ago, adding that if the government were to go through with its plan to -demolish more of his home, he will be left with only 1m2 of land to live on.
“That’s about the size of a man standing,” he said.
The residents said they only accidentally learned about this plan in April when a resident was surfing the Internet and came across a city government briefing.
The buildings were built on a flood plain that has been designated a “no construction district” for 40 years, but when residents learned that the prohibition had finally been lifted this year, they also learned that they face eviction from their homes.
According to the Urban Planning Act (都市計畫法), residents of affected areas in urban planning projects must be notified about hearings through reports published in newspapers before the plans can be sent to government review commissions for approval.
Resident Chen Wei (陳瑋) said the head of the borough and residents were not properly informed of the project through public bulletin boards or by mail, adding that the government had only published the information on the China Daily News, a local newspaper published mainly in Greater Tainan.
Chen said the Urban and Rural Development Department could not answer their questions about traffic volume and floor area ratio in the nearby boroughs, nor could he say why the road expansion is needed.
The government seems to be concealing information and violating legal procedures, lawyer Chan Wen-kai (詹文凱) said, adding that the procedures should be done again to take the residents’ opinions into account.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition