The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would propose a centralized surveillance agency in the Taiwan High Court to prevent illegal and political wiretapping in the future, the DPP caucus said yesterday.
The court would be the single institution in charge of coordinating national wiretap assignments, taking over the function from a range of agencies across government, including the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice (MJIB) and the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the National Police Agency, DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) told a press conference.
The proposal stems from the administrative branch’s abuse of wiretaps on the legislature, prosecutors and private citizens, Wu said.
Other proposals would be to prohibit information obtained from wiretaps from being used outside criminal investigation purposes and demand the destruction of information unrelated to the original purpose, DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said.
The DPP proposes a special court to review wiretap applications, as well as stricter standards on extensions, he added.
Public servants who use information beyond the original surveillance purpose would be subject to a prison term of up to three years, Wu said.
Proposals to amend the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法), the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) and the organic acts for the courts, the MJIB and the CIB are to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan’s Conference Department today, caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told the press conference.
“Hopefully the proposals will be sent to respective committees in the plenary session on Friday,” he said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said it respected the proposal.
A NT$39 receipt for two bottles of tea at a FamilyMart was among the NT$10 million (US $312,969) special prize winners in the January-February uniform invoice lottery. FamilyMart said that two NT$10 million-winning receipts were issued at its stores, as well as two NT$2 million grand prizes and three NT$200,000 first prizes. The two NT$10 million receipts were issued at stores in Pingtung County and Yilan County’s Dongshan Township (冬山). One winner spent just NT$39 on two bottles of tea, while another spent NT$80 on water, tea and coffee, the company said. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven reported three NT$10 million winners — in New Taipei
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
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