Proceedings were stymied yesterday on the first day of the legislative session, after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers boycotted Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) administrative report.
The KMT caucus cited three reasons for their boycott: a proposed amendment targeting “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents”; a duty-free cigarette smuggling scandal that erupted in July; and an incident involving Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文), who left a bag containing NT$3 million (US$96,665) in cash on a train.
The KMT caucus demanded that the “malignant law” targeting CCP agents be retracted and that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) deliver a report to the Legislative Yuan on the cigarette smuggling incident.
Photo: CNA
KMT legislators brought prop cigarettes cartons and carried cups of bubble tea with them as they occupied the speaker’s podium hours before 9am, when the session was scheduled to begin.
The bubble tea was an apparent dig at Chen’s son, Chen Cheng-ting (陳政廷), who said that his parents intended to give him the NT$3 million to open a bubble tea store in the Philippines.
After reading the schedule determined during cross-caucus talks on Sept. 3, Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) concluded the meeting at about 10:30am.
Later in the day, the caucuses reached an agreement to have the nominee for auditor-general — Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Deputy Minister Chen Ruei-min (陳瑞敏) — attend a question-and-answer session on Thursday next week.
His nomination is to be voted on the following day.
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A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
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