The decision by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration at 10am yesterday morning to punish the Philippines for its failure to meet Taipei’s demands regarding the killing of a fisherman by Philippine Coast Guard personnel came 10 hours later than the government had promised.
After handing out a 72-hour ultimatum for Manila to positively respond to demands on Sunday at 12am, government officials repeatedly vowed to implement three punitive measures against the Philippines if it failed to meet the deadline.
At a press conference at 10am yesterday, following a National Security Council meeting called by Ma at 7am, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said he was “sorry” that the government did not adhere to the deadline, but denied any change in the government’s stance toward the Philippines’ response.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
It was “inappropriate” that the punitive measures against the Philippines were announced after midnight on Tuesday, Jiang said.
Manila’s response, delivered by Manila Economic and Culture Office Managing Director Antonio Basilio to Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) at 8pm on Tuesday, was subject to revisions after five hours of negotiations.
The response was presented in a letter addressed to Lin by Basilio.
Jiang said the content of the letter was finalized at 11:30pm, after both Lin and Basilio had consulted with government officials.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff took extra time to complete the text, both in English and in Chinese, so the meeting continued past the deadline, Jiang said.
The press conference following the negotiations was held at 1am on Wednesday, during which Lin said that Taipei took Manila’s response as “positive,” but that there were some points that “needed to be clarified.”
Lin said at that time that the government would have an inter-agency meeting to examine whether the response met the government’s expectations.
However, Jiang said he knew as soon as the letter was finalized that the response would be “unsatisfactory” to the government.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had updated both Ma and Jiang in real time during the negotiations with Basilio.
“Because the meeting finished very late, we had no time to have a National Security Council meeting to examine the response,” Jiang said.
DOING ENOUGH? The HPA budgets NT$1.3 billion to prevent the health hazards of tobacco, but has no separate budget to fight teen drinking, a doctor said The government should step up alcohol education and prevention efforts, and allocate more of the budget to it, doctors said on Friday, citing the high consumption of alcohol among Taiwanese adolescents. One out of four 12-to-17-year-olds has consumed alcohol, said Yen Tsung-hai (顏宗海), director of Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Department of Clinical Toxicology. The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) budgets NT$1.3 billion (US$43.9 million) annually to prevent the health hazards of tobacco, but it has not allocated a separate budget for preventing teenage drinking or excessive alcohol use, Yen said. “There is no so-called ‘safe drinking level’ for minors,” because any amount consumed
The Fancy Frontier manga and anime expo held in Taipei over the weekend has sparked controversy, after a participant allegedly contravened the Act on Offenses Against Sexual Morality (妨害風化罪) by publicly exposing her private parts during a photo shoot. The two-day event opened at the Expo Dome at the Taipei Expo Park on Saturday, attracting numerous comic and anime creators, cosplayers, photographers and fans. Allegedly, a female cosplayer who was not wearing any underwear lifted up her skirt and revealed her private parts at an outdoor photography area near the venue. Event organizers said yesterday that to prevent indecent exposure, they have since
YOUNGEST PATIENT: Cases of botulism have been only sporadically reported over the past few years, with two in 2015, six in 2016 and none in the past three years The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of infant botulism this year, a four-month-old boy in northern Taiwan, as well as five new cases of Japanese encephalitis confirmed last week. The boy was introduced to homemade solid food in the middle of last month, but began to experience constipation and loss of appetite on June 23, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said, adding that he was taken to the hospital when he developed a fever and shortness of breath on June 25. In the hospital, the boy also experienced a rapid heartbeat, limb
The National Taiwan Museum’s Railway Department Park in Taipei is to open to the public today. The park in Datong District (大同) near the North Gate (北門, Beimen) is one of the museum’s four branches. During the Japanese colonial era, the site housed the railway department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan’s Bureau of Transportation. After World War II, it served as the headquarters for the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) for several decades. In 2007, it was listed as a national monument under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法). At an opening ceremony yesterday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung
RSS