The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is citing a 1996 precedent in order to delay the report of Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺).
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Policy Committee head Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said the party caucus would discuss their response next week.
The KMT has argued that Jiang has to give a full report to the Legislative Yuan this month, citing article 16 of the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法), which state that the premier should make his report on governmental policies from the first half of the year on the first day of September.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said it would not be a constitutional — or even legal — violation if the report was made after this month.
Ker said that although the Executive Yuan had to report to the Legislative Yuan, the legislature has the power to decide whether it wanted to hear the report.
Ker said that the DPP was adamant that the issue be handled the way the Legislative Yuan did it in 1996.
After the first direct general elections in Taiwan in 1996, the question was raised as to whether the vice president can also hold office as premier — then-vice president elect Lien Chan (連戰) had been the premier at the time — causing a constitutional debate.
Many vice presidents had doubled as the premier during the Martial Law era, such as Chen Cheng (陳誠) and Yen Chia-kan (嚴家淦), but the debate prompted the Council of Grand Justices to make Constitutional Interpretation No. 419 on Dec. 31, 1996, stating that the office of vice president and the office of premier held the position of being needed to step into the role of national leader in case of a crisis, and therefore these roles were not encouraged should not be held by the same person.
The consitutional issue was resolved after when Lee nominated Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) as premier in April 1997. The interval was the longest time the premier had been unable to present the Executive Yuan’s report to the legislature.
Meanwhile, in response to the DPP’s request to alter the agenda and include more items for discussion, Lin had also made the same request, but had been called out of order by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who had been seen to shake his finger at Lin and seemed to be angry.
Wang said afterwards that he had not been angry and had only wished to remind Lin that it was late and if Lin had his way, the afternoon session would not be able to address the general interpellation as planned.
“I only wished to remind him [Lin] that we can’t do things like that,” Wang said.
Lin also said that there were no quarrels between himself and Wang, adding that they had only been exchanging ideas on the procedure of the session.
Wang asked us not to raise counter proposals to the DPP’s additional agendas, and we agreed to give the proceedings a good atmosphere, Lin said.
Additional reporting by Wang Yu-chung
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai