The Taitung County Government on Monday appealed to the Supreme Court to overrule a verdict issued by the Kaohsiung High Administrative Court in October that revoked the county’s approval of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the construction of the Miramar Resort Hotel in Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣), saying that the move could help to mitigate financial loss should the resort’s developer demand state compensation.
Taitung County Government Secretary-General Chen Chin-hu (陳金虎) yesterday said that it is unlikely the judges would rule in favor of the county’s approval of the EIA report, which could prompt Miramar Resort Hotel Co to file a lawsuit against the government, demanding compensation to offset the losses it suffered for the build-operate-transfer project.
Taitung County Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭), who was re-elected in the nine-in-one elections on Saturday, also expressed concern over the possibility the company would demand indemnification, saying that the judicial system has negated the county government’s policies, and that the prospects of future assessments being acknowledged are bleak.
“Miramar will not tolerate a hotel complex in which it has invested more than NT$1 billion [US$32.3 million] becoming defunct. The Taitung County Government is prepared to face a lawsuit demanding state compensation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Thomas Chan (詹順貴), an attorney representing county residents and environmental activists who oppose the project, said the county government should not try to use the prospect of state compensation to browbeat the public.
He said such compensation is only upheld when the court deems that a government has breached the principle of legitimate expectation, in which case the government changes or cancels its decisions, thus failing to live up to people’s expectations and causing them financial loss.
“Miramar Resort Hotel Co started this incident by bypassing EIA procedures to construct the hotel, so the fault is not entirely on the county government. The judges might not necessarily uphold a verdict holding it liable for state compensation,” Chan said.
Lin Shu-ling (林淑玲), an Amis Aborigine and Taitung resident, criticized the county’s appeal, calling it a waste of public funds.
“The county government has approved two EIA reports by the company; both were revoked by judges. It should get the judges’ messages through its head,” Lin said.
“If the county government really wishes to avoid the scenario, it should lay out clear strategies and put this issue to a public discussion,” she said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked