Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday was mum on reports that he would appoint former Greater Taichung deputy mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) to be his third deputy mayor, but hinted that candidates with backgrounds in education would be “very suitable” for the post.
While the third deputy mayor seat has remained vacant since Ko’s second term began on Dec. 25 last year, some local media on Tuesday reported that Ko is likely announce Tsai for the position next week or after he returns from a visit to the US.
Tsai previously served as principal of Taichung First Senior High School and Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, as well as Taichung deputy mayor under former Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). He was also deputy minister of culture from 2015 to 2016.
Asked for comment yesterday, Ko said: “When the time comes, someone will come to work and everyone will know.”
“I do not think about the pan-blue or pan-green camps anymore; I am free from hindrance,” he said when asked if his appointment of Tsai would imply his intention to cooperate with the KMT, similar to his appointment of Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as a deputy mayor before his falling-out with the DPP.
The third deputy mayor would be in charge of supervising the city’s departments of social welfare, education, cultural affairs, and information and tourism, so appointing someone with a background in education would be most suitable, Ko said.
Asked why he has not recruited any DPP members, Ko said that not all personnel assignments have been decided by him alone, such as the decision to make former Taipei city councilor Chen Lee-hui (陳孋輝) the director of partially city government-owned bus carrier Metropolitan Transport Corp, which was suggested by the Taipei Department of Transportation.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
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‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is