The National Women’s League would be allowed to donate NT$16 billion (US$522 million) of its assets to the Ministry of Health and Welfare to go toward long-term healthcare if the group is found to be affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and have funding from ill-gotten assets, the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said yesterday.
The committee has decided that such a donation could be seen as a legal means of returning ill-gotten party assets to the state and facilitating a fair competitive environment for political parties, which is in line with the spirit of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said.
The league last month notified the ministry that it wanted to donate money to fund the national long-term care system, but the ministry was concerned with the legality of the move because the money might be recognized as ill-gotten KMT assets.
“Although the committee has not yet determined that the league is an [KMT] affiliated organization, it unanimously agreed that the donation would be legal if the league was recognized as such,” Shih said, adding that the ministry could accept the donation without legal worries.
Asked if the committee was overstepping its authority by reviewing the legality of a proposed donation before the league’s status has been determined, Shih said the committee does not have the right to approve or disapprove the donation now, but it would approve the donation if the league was ruled to be a KMT affiliate.
The league on Feb. 17 said that it had NT$38.1 billion in assets and it would donate NT$16 billion to government agencies to be used for long-term healthcare, NT$6 billion to social welfare organizations and NT$6 billion to Cheng Hsin General Hospital to build a long-term care center.
The proposed donation to the hospital has been widely criticized because the league’s executive secretary, Cecilia Koo Yen (辜嚴倬雲), is president of the hospital.
For organizations whose properties are recognized as ill-gotten party assets, making donations to government agencies and legally required payments, such as salaries and taxes, are the only two spending activities allowed under the act, Shih said.
“Donations made to non-governmental organizations are not allowed by the act, and organizations have to understand that there are legal consequences to accepting such donations,” she said.
The committee has scheduled a hearing on April 27 to review the league’s status.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS