The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday continued to press the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over its “ill-gotten party assets” after a ruling on Tuesday that questioned the legitimacy of its possession of properties in New Taipei City.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Taiwan High Court ruling that the Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC) was in illegal possession of government land and called on the corporation to nullify its registration on more than 16,528m2 of land in Banciao District (板橋) so it can be returned to the government.
The land is estimated to be worth NT$10.8 billion to NT$16.2 billion (US$361 million to US$542 million), depending on its zoning as commercial or residential.
The case is one of several attempts since former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration tried to recoup KMT assets that are alleged to be public property.
After the Nationalist government lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949, it transferred some national assets to party-affiliated corporations, such as the BCC, the Central Motion Pictures Corp (CMPC) and China Television (CTV), for fear that should the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) be recognized as the sole representative of China, all assets would become CCP property by default, as the national assets were registered under the Republic of China (ROC).
The Ministry of Transportation and Communication brought charges against the BCC in 2004, citing Article 28 of the National Property Act (國有財產法) and declaring that a transfer of land ownership in 1985 was illegal.
The land is government-owned and off limits for any transaction, the ministry said, adding that it should not have been overseen by a private institute.
The three tracts of land, later separated into eight different tracts, along Minzu Road in Banciao District had originally been government-owned after the KMT took over administration of the nation when the Japanese surrendered after World War II.
Originally belonging to both the ministry and the BCC, the KMT government empowered the BCC to oversee the land, and in 1985 registered the land under the BCC.
Despite the BCC’s argument that its acquisition of the land was legal due to Executive Yuan approval in 1951 and because the National Property Act (國有財產法) had not been implemented at the time, the collegiate bench ruled in the first retrial in 2008 that the ministry was in the right.
The ruling was upheld in the second and third retrials, and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Taiwan High Court’s ruling yesterday settled the matter.
DPP spokesman Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said yesterday that the ruling was the judicial system’s recognition that the KMT had illegally possessed public property.
Huang said the ruling also shows that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) promise for “zero party assets” was fake and called for the KMT to cease its stranglehold on efforts to push through the draft political party law and the statute on the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties (政黨不當取得財產處理條例).
Ma had promised to liquidate all party assets and return land to the government when running for KMT chairman, a claim that the DPP says to date has not been fulfilled.
However, the party said it has liquidated eight controversial assets, including the three corporations — CTV, BCC and CMPC — the party held by proxy through the Hua Hsia Investment Holding Co, since 2008, which in total is worth NT$30 billion.
Separately, Citizen Congress Watch member Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華) said on Tuesday that Ma should make good his promise on the “zero party asset” policy and also called on the DPP to redouble efforts to push the draft political party act.
Former Control Yuan committee member Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) also said in a report filed last month that the KMT still possesses five pieces of land and three buildings it has not yet returned to the government.
Additional reporting by Hsiang Cheng-chen, Lin Mei-fen, Lin Chia-chi, Tseng Te-jung, Wang Yu-chung, Shih Hsiao-kuang, Tseng Wei-chen and Chen Yen-ting
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