Members of two civic groups yesterday condemned the rejection of their appeal to return land expropriated duraing the Dapu Incident to the original owners, promising to continue their fight in court and calling on the incoming administration of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to put pressure on the Miaoli County Government.
About 30 members of the Miaoli Youth Alliance and Taiwan Rural Front came together with residents of Miaoli County’s Dapu Borough (大埔) to protest the decision, which turned down the residents’ appeal to have the land returned to them after its expropriation was ruled illegal.
“The court has already ruled against the government and logically this would mean that the ‘status quo’ should be restored — why can the courts not side with vulnerable and underprivileged people?” Taiwan Rural Front chairman Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮) said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“The Taichung High Administrative Court has used a procedural question to avoid the logic on which it should have issued a ruling,” said Thomas Chan (詹順貴), an attorney and rights campaigner who represents the landowners free of charge.
He said the court violated precedent by ruling that the Miaoli County Government was only a participant in the civic groups’ original lawsuit against the Ministry of the Interior and was therefore not subject to a direct ruling.
In 2013, the ministry approved the Miaoli County Government’s expropriation of farmland in the county’s Jhunan Township (竹南) to expand the Hsinchu Science Park, leading to the forcible demolition of four family houses in Dapu.
Chan said that civic groups at the time had no choice but to file a lawsuit against the ministry over the expropriation, adding that the groups would appeal the court’s decision while continuing to pursue a separate lawsuit against the Miaoli County Government seeking monetary compensation.
The groups also called on Tsai’s incoming administration to put pressure on the Miaoli County Government to return the land to spare the landowners the trouble of a drawn-out legal process.
“We hope that after Tsai takes office she can resolve the issue, otherwise it would be extremely difficult for us to keep going,” said Peng Hsiu-chun (彭秀春), widow of Chang Sen-wen (張森文), who committed suicide shortly after his pharmacy was torn down during the demolition.
Youth Alliance for Miaoli member Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇) called for Tsai to find a “political” solution, while criticizing the court’s decision, saying it “opened the door” for further arbitrary expropriations.
“The court has used procedural reasoning to violate the rights of residents,” he said. “In the future, the county government will be able to forcibly expropriate your land and tear down your house and then present you with a fait accompli — telling you there is no way to restore the ‘status quo.’”
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS