Opponents of a planned landfill project in Tainan yesterday gathered outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, urging the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) not to use the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) to “bully” people fighting for land justice.
Ocin Environmental Co plans to build the landfill on a plot of land which is easily eroded and holds little water or vegetation in Nioupu Borough (牛埔) in Tainan’s Longci District (龍崎). The site covers 41.19 hectares and would be used to bury 18.7 million tonnes of industrial waste.
While the project was approved by the Environmental Protection Administration in 2003, opponents said it would destroy the natural landscape and pollute the Erren River (二仁溪).
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
About 100 residents on March 14 petitioned the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau to revoke its approval of the project.
Later that day, they marched to the DPP headquarters in Taipei to petition DPP Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), a potential candidate for Tainan’s mayoral election at that time, but were surrounded by hundreds of police because President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was attending a central Standing Committee meeting.
Among the petitioners, Nioupu Borough warden Richard Chen (陳永和) and Tainan Education Union secretary-general Hsu You-jen (許又仁) last month received summons from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, which yesterday asked them about their alleged contravention of the act.
They originally sat in a park across from the party headquarters, but were guided by police to sit outside the headquarters to avoid sunburn, Chen told a news conference before entering the office.
Most of the rally’s participants were elderly people in their 70s or 80s, who expressed their opinions in a mild manner, but the DPP chose to drive them away with police force, Hsu said.
Hsu has decided to run for Tainan city councilor in the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24 and to continue protesting against the project, He added.
It is ironic that the DPP uses the act to suppress activists protecting their own land when it has vowed to abolish a requirement that people should obtain government approval before holding a rally, Environmental Rights Foundation chief executive Tu Yu-wen (涂又文) said, adding that the DPP has yet to deliver on its promise.
The office questioned the two until about 4pm yesterday, but did not make any announcements, Chen said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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