A group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday said they supported Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku’s (魏明谷) compliance with regulations and urged Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp not to use workers’ demands to force the county government into skirting the law.
A group of company employees over the past week has staged protests in front of the Changhua County government building and clashed with police, expressing anger over county authorities’ refusal to issue an operating permit for the plant’s three power generators by a Sept. 28 deadline. Without the renewed permits, the plant is expected to completely shut down, which would leave the workers out of work.
At a news conference in Taipei, DPP legislators Chen Su-yueh (陳素月), Hung Chun-yi (洪宗熠) and Huang Hsiu-fang (黃秀芳) expressed support for Wei, who is also a DPP member.
Chen called on the workers not to “act mistakenly,” adding that the permits were revoked over noncompliance with environmental protection standards.
The plant should reapply for new permits as soon as possible and not waste time protesting, she said.
Chen said that regardless of how the permits were obtained five years ago, the plant must be socially responsible now and obtain a permit with proper inspection of the facilities by the county government’s Environmental Protection Bureau.
The company cannot cover up breaches of the regulations by saying it is trying to create job opportunities, Huang said, adding that while the county is acting according to law, the company is trying to solve the issue through appeal.
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre should take responsibility and seek to settle the issue for workers, Huang said, adding that she hopes the company and senior workers would take the issue seriously.
Hung said the company’s permit applications have already been rejected 37 times.
Hung said it has been revealed that Cho Po-chung (卓伯仲), brother of former Changhua county commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源), had sought funding from the company’s then-vice chairman Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源) for 1 million bags with poetry written on them at a total value of NT$370 million (US$11.7 million).
“Do not think you can simply give financial support to the government and have it turn a blind eye to illegal activity,” Hung said to Hong.
Hung said that the problems would not exist if the company simply obtained the permits for the boilers via correct procedures, but the company has so far failed to do so.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS