The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called on all the legislative caucuses to respect the Constitution and immediately initiate the procedure to review President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) nominations for grand justices.
Ma has nominated lawyer Huang Horng-shya (黃虹霞), Deputy Minister of Justice Wu Chen-huan (吳陳鐶), National Taiwan University law professor Tsai Ming-cheng (蔡明誠) and Shilin District Court President Lin Jyun-yi (林俊益) as grand justices, nominations that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and some groups say is unconstitutional, as it is the second time Ma has nominated candidates during his term of office.
KMT deputy caucus whip Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said it is a convention for the president to nominate new grand justices at the end of the terms of office of the incumbents.
Responding to those who say that it is unconstitutional because all of the grand justices would have been selected by the same president, Liao said that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) also made recommendations twice during his eight-year term.
Chen selected a total of 19 nominees in 2003 and 2007, and when he left office in May 2008, all the incumbent grand justices had been nominated by him, Liao said.
“How come he was not accused of being unconstitutional then?” he asked.
KMT Legislator Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) said that if Ma did not nominate new grand justices, it would result in a scenario where all the grand justices would be nominated by the next president.
KMT Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟), commenting on Lin, a former Supreme Court judge who acquitted Ma of corruption charges in a case involving his use of a special allowance fund when Taipei mayor and who was a former student of DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) when she was a professor at National Chengchi University’s Department of International Trade, applauded Ma for his “guts” and “bearing” for nominating Lin.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
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