Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over its assets, saying the KMT administration had secretly sold its ill-gotten assets, pocketed substantial commissions from the transactions and used the profits to heavily subsidize the party’s election campaigns, spawning grave public grievance in the country.
Accompanied by lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and representatives from the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, the Rotary Club and the Taiwan Junior Chamber, Su made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei, titled “Giving vent to fury” (火大找出路), which called on more than 1,000 civil groups to hit the streets along with the party in a planned mass demonstration in Taipei against President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
The rally, which is set to begin at 3pm on Jan. 13 at the intersection of Renai Road and Guangfu S Road, will be the last leg of the DPP’s one-month Fury (火大) campaign against what it says is the Ma administration’s poor governance.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“The KMT has not only liquidated its unjustly solicited assets in secrecy, but has also received huge commissions from the sales. While the party has yet to reduce its assets to zero [as promised by Ma in his capacity as KMT chairman,] it has been using the stolen assets to subsidize election campaigns,” Su said.
Su’s criticism of the KMT came after a recent court ruling involving Hsinyutai Co, a spin-off of the KMT’s investment company — Central Investment Holding Co — which sued the buyers of Central Motion Pictures Corp (CMPC) for NT$2.5 billion (US$85.9 million) for breach of contract.
According to the ruling, handed down on Nov. 30, the Central Investment Holding Co had stipulated in the sales contract of the CMPC with Lor Yu-chen (羅玉珍) and Chuang Wan-chun (莊婉均) that the latter helped the holding company auction off several of its assets with an estimated value of NT$9.8 billion and then paid it a sum of the profits after deducting taxes and transaction fees if they were sold higher than a certain price.
The pair were sued for failing to liquidate such properties within a stipulated period and thus incurring financial damage to the holding company.
Turning to the soaring prices caused by the Ma administration’s plan to increase fuel prices and electricity rates, Su said last year had been a year of suffering and worries under the Ma administration.
Su said public fear over the possible bankruptcy of the Labor Insurance Fund by 2024 had resulted in a spike in the number of insurers applying for lump-sum payments in October and November last year, totaling more than NT$80 billion.
However, the Ma administration still raised premium rates for the fund on Tuesday and let the second-generation National Health Insurance system take effect on the same day, Su said.
Echoing Su’s opinions, Medical Professional Alliance in Taichung secretary-general Gao Chia-chun (高嘉君) said the number of people seeking self-pay treatments was on the rise, mainly because they could no longer afford their health insurance premiums.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
The Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) has made a three-phased compulsory evacuation plan for Hualien County’s Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) disaster zone ahead of the potential formation of a typhoon. The plan includes mandatory vertical evacuation using air-raid-style alarms if needed, CEOC chief coordinator Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) told a news conference in the county yesterday. Volunteers would be prohibited from entering the disaster area starting tomorrow, the retired general said. The first phase would be relocating vulnerable residents, including elderly people, disabled people, pregnant women and dialysis patients, in shelters and hospitals, he said. The second phase would be mandatory evacuation of residents living in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS