The Control Yuan is to pass the member lists of its seven permanent committees today and elect new conveners for each committee to replace those appointed under the former administration.
Current committee conveners, as well as the majority of committee members, were elected under the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The new members are expected to scramble for control of the Committee on Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs and subsequently block requests for constitutional interpretations of pension reforms which were passed last month, a Control Yuan source said on condition of anonymity.
The committees are also expected to reopen investigations into past cases involving Ma, including the MeHAS development project, the unfinished Taipei Dome, Fubon Bank’s takeover of Taipei Bank and former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming’s (黃世銘) illegal wiretapping case, in which he was convicted, the source said.
When 11 Control Yuan members nominated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in January, they were limited in their choice of committees they could join, as most of the committees were already filled with members nominated under Ma, the source said, adding that today’s passing of new committee member lists would change this.
The new committee members would start work next month, they added.
Old committee members are expected to have the advantage in electing conveners for most of the committees given their higher number, the source said.
The Committee on Internal and Minority Nationality Affairs, the Committee on National Defense and Intelligence Affairs, the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, the Committee on Financial and Economic Affairs, and the Committee on Communication and Procurement Affairs are likely to elect conveners from old committee members, the source added.
The Committee on Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs, and the Committee on Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs are likely to elect new members as conveners, the source said, adding that Tsai Chung-yi (蔡崇義) and Peter Chang (張武修) are likely to be elected as conveners of the two committees respectively.
Each committee can only have a maximum of 14 members, and the Committee on Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs has never had full membership, despite its importance in legal cases.
This year the committee would have eight new committee members and six old members, the source said.
Last month, committee member Chang Kuei-mei (仉桂美) proposed a constitutional interpretation of the military pension reforms, but the proposal has not been passed, the source said.
The proposal must be passed by the committee before it can be sent to the Council of Grand Justices, which is unlikely to happen with the change in committee members, the source said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai