After vowing to give out 100 free chicken pies if flooding occurred at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport when Typhoon Nepartake hit the nation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) has now extended his promise for four years until President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) first term ends.
After the airport was flooding last month during a thunderstorm that partially paralyzed it for days, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) made special efforts prior to the typhoon to prevent flooding at the airport and promised the public that it would not occur again.
To show his confidence in Hochen’s promise, Cheng announced that he would give out free chicken pies if the airport flooded again when the typhoon hit.
Yesterday, he extended the promise.
“Taoyuan airport was not flooded, but I think I did not really win the bet since the typhoon did not have much impact in northern Taiwan,” Cheng said in a Facebook post. “Based on my confidence in Hochen, I hereby announce that my promise will be valid for the four years the DPP is in power — I will give out [100] free chicken pies each time the airport floods due to torrential rain.”
Cheng said he is confident the airport would not flood due to torrential rain because drainage at the airport had been mismanaged by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration over the past eight years, adding that he believes Hochen also believes that to be the case.
However, an Internet user surnamed Lai (賴) was not so fortunate after he announced on Facebook prior to the typhoon that he would buy anyone who signs up a cup of tapioca milk tea if the airport did not flood during the typhoon.
Prior to the typhoon making landfall, 209,559 people had signed up and he would have to spend more than NT$6.2 million (US$191,915) to fulfill the promise, as a tapioca milk tea costs about NT$30 a cup.
However, Lai deleted the post and did not respond to calls for him to honor his promise or apologize in public.
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