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.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS