Lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday passed a resolution asking the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to allow all owners or stakeholders of land that is to be expropriated for the Taoyuan Aerotropolis Project to attend an administrative hearing for the project.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Jian-yu (陳建宇) said that while he respected the resolution, issues related to the land expropriation could not be decided by the ministry alone, and that he would have to study the possibility with the Ministry of the Interior and the Taoyuan City Government.
Chen said the MOTC is holding the administrative hearing based on the Land Expropriation Act (土地徵收法), which stipulates administrative hearings should be held if disputes arise from the expropriation of a special agricultural zone for an infrastructure project approved by the Executive Yuan.
To allow more stakeholders to express their opinions, Chen said the MOTC has already decided to hold public hearings for owners of non-farmland that would be expropriated for the project as well.
According to the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the project covers an area of 4,687 hectares.
The project requires the expropriation of 3,155 hectares of land from civilians, with the central government responsible for expropriating 1,481 hectares, while the rest of the land is to be expropriated by the Taoyuan City Government.
Chen’s response failed to convince opponents to the project, including the Taiwan Association of Human Rights deputy secretary-general Wang Pao-hsuan (王寶萱) and lawyer Thomas Chan (詹順貴), who were at the meeting.
Wang said that Hong Kong, like Taiwan, has only two runways at its largest international airport, but the airport in Hong Kong is able to handle more flights per year than Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
She said the government should re-examine if the runways at the Taoyuan airport have been used efficiently and not view a third runway as the only solution for easing flight congestion.
She added that the administrative hearing was held only for owners of properties designated as farmland, which is about 219 hectares. This means that more than 10,000 owners of non-farmland are essentially excluded from attending the administrative hearing, she said.
Chan said the Land Expropriation Act does not say the MOTC cannot hold an administrative hearing prior to expropriation of non-farmland. Holding the hearing for certain individuals and excluding others violates the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution, he added.
All the Democratic Progressive Party legislators sided with the opponents of the development deal during the meeting.
They then succeeded in passing the resolution requiring the ministry to hold an administrative hearing for all land owners involved in the project and for an independent third party be invited to join government officials in hosting the hearing.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Luo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said the meeting did not invite any supporters of the deal.
“If the ministry cannot handle the disputes [over the land expropriation] well, the entire project will soon be dead in the water,” she said.
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