The Miaoli County Government yesterday announced that it would not appeal a court ruling in favor of the four families whose houses were forcefully demolished in Miaoli County’s Dapu Borough (大埔) last year.
The county government’s decision not to file an appeal before the Wednesday deadline follows that of the Ministry of the Interior, which said on Jan. 28 that it would not contest the verdict.
However, the families have said that they do plan to appeal the ruling.
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times
“The Miaoli County Government has decided not to appeal the court’s decision out of respect for the Ministry of the Interior, which decided not to appeal right before the Lunar New Year holiday,” Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) said yesterday.
“However, I want to make it clear that the county government will not pay a penny to compensate the families, or help them rebuild their homes. It is impossible for us to compensate them with Miaoli taxpayers’ money, because that would be simply unacceptable,” Liu said.
Last month, the Greater Taichung High Administrative Court ruled that the ministry and county government’s complete or partial tearing down of the four homes last year was illegal because both had failed to complete the procedures required to approve forced demolitions.
However, when addressing the plaintiffs’ request that the county government return their land and rebuild their homes, the court said that such restitution may not be possible since roads and pedestrian crossings have already been constructed on some of the land where the houses once stood.
Despite welcoming the ministry’s decision not to contest the ruling, the Dapu families decided to lodge an appeal because they insist that the county government should help them rebuild their homes.
“We decided to appeal the ruling, because the part in the ruling that says it’s not possible to return the land to the families and rebuild their homes since roads and pedestrian crossings have been built is unacceptable,” said Thomas Chan (詹順貴), a pro bono attorney and rights activist representing the families.
“It’s not difficult to eliminate a pedestrian crossing and dig up the pavement to give the families their land back,” Chan said.
Responding to the families’ decision, Deputy Minister of the Interior Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家淇) said that the ministry fully respects their right to appeal and would await the court’s decision.
“Meanwhile, I would like to let the families know that the ministry will keep its doors open for negotiations if they should want to hold talks,” Hsiao said.
The ministry has also said that it would look into how to compensate the families.
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
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
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS