Environmental activists filed a petition yesterday asking the Control Yuan to probe a long-disputed resort development in Taitung on what was once one of Taiwan’s most beautiful beaches.
The activists also called for the impeachment of officials they accused of failing to fulfill their duties.
The activists, including representatives of Citizens of the Earth and the Green Party, were making their sixth visit in four years to the Control Yuan, demanding an investigation into the construction of the Miramar Resort Village on Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣).
Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) of Citizens of the Earth said previous petitions went unanswered because the Control Yuan would not take any action until a final Supreme Administrative Court ruling on the case.
In September, the court ordered the developer to halt construction, eight months after it invalidated an environmental impact assessment for the project.
Now the court has ruled the construction illegal, the Control Yuan should begin an investigation as soon as possible, Tsai said. Control Yuan member Chou Yang-shan (周陽山) has accepted the latest petition and promised to start proceedings based on the law, Tsai added.
Environmental protection groups have since demanded the demolition of the buildings already constructed, insisting that a development project of environmental concern should not be allowed to proceed without passing environmental impact assessments by independent professionals.
This demand has been rejected by the Taitung County Government, which said the ruling does not mean that the buildings already constructed should be demolished.
The county government insists the project has followed legal procedure since construction began in 2005 and that it is waiting for a new environmental impact evaluation.
The resort project is a build-operate-transfer project by the county and Urban Development Co.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS