The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday asked police to investigate an online rumor alleging that the general manager of the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park in New Taipei City is a financial supporter of the party.
The water park is the site of an explosion on Saturday that injured nearly 500 people and killed one person.
“While the entire nation prays and tries by all means to help victims of the explosion, there are politically calculating people who are taking advantage of the tragedy by making false accusations against the DPP,” Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), a lawyer, said outside the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division headquarters before going inside to file a police report.
“What they are doing is very inappropriate, so we are officially asking police to launch an investigation to see who is behind such political maneuvering that also harms victims and their families,” Huang added.
Huang was referring to a message that has been circulating via Line, Facebook and other social networking or messenger services.
According to the message, Formosa Fun Coast general manager Chen Hui-ying (陳慧穎) is an important sponsor of the DPP. It says that the financial relationship explains why the DPP “has not been pointing fingers” about the incident.
“I was thinking it felt odd,” the message read. “In the past, whenever something happened in a city or county governed by the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT], the DPP would go all out and make all kinds of accusations, but this time no one is doing so — [New Taipei City Mayor] Eric Chu [朱立倫] has had a narrow escape.”
This is not an isolated case, Huang said, adding that earlier this month, a rumor surfaced saying that the family of DPP Chairperson and presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) owns the Hai Pa Wang (海霸王) seafood restaurant chain and is expanding in China.
The Criminal Investigation Division accepted the report, asked for more details and promised to investigate.
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