The Nationalist Chinese Party (KMT) Central Evaluation and Discipline Committee has voted to suspend the party duties and privileges of Apollo Chen (陳學聖) for one year, following his dissenting vote on an amendment to the Land Administration Agents Act (地政士法) last month.
After receiving the news, Chen said: “Since I cast the vote, I must have the courage to bear the consequences.”
“After some time has passed, everyone will know that I stood up for the public with the right decision,” he added.
In a meeting yesterday, the committee passed the one-year suspension unanimously.
At the legislature’s extra session on Jan. 27 and Jan. 28, the KMT called on all party lawmakers to attend the vote and to approve the amendment to the Land Administration Agents Act. However, Apollo Chen did not toe the party line and cast a dissenting vote.
The KMT committee said that Chen had violated the party charter’s article by not following the resolution, policies and guiding principles of the party, and therefore it was forced to hand out the suspension.
The amendment to the Land Administration Agents Act was passed by the legislature on Jan. 3. It aims to ease land administration agents’ responsibility for registering real-estate sales prices by allowing them a second chance to revise a registration.
However, the Executive Yuan has decided the amendment could provide a loophole that might undermine the actual-price registration system for property transactions launched by the government on Aug. 1, 2012, to curb property speculation and increase transparency in the housing market.
In an attempt to fight the ongiong inflation of property prices, the government has required that buyers, real-estate brokers and land administration agents register the actual transaction prices of properties or face a fine.
The amended act was seen by the Executive Yuan as a loophole that could undermine the real-estate transaction price registration system.
Land administration agents made protests last month against the Executive Yuan’s request to rescind the amendment.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS