Lawmakers yesterday voted to schedule a Dec. 31 review of an anti-infiltration bill proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee, the DPP caucus filed a motion to schedule the review for Dec. 31, which was put to a vote after objections by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers. The motion passed 9-2.
The DPP’s proposed bill last month advanced to a second reading and additional cross-caucus discussions.
The legislation calls for those who disrupt social order under the command or at the behest of “infiltration sources” to face a prison term of up to seven years or a fine of NT$5 million (US$165,508).
The 12-article bill would prohibit donations to political parties, influencing elections, proposing the recall of a government official or launching a referendum on the instructions or with the financial support of an infiltration source.
The legislature is today to enter a recess until Dec. 30 and call one legislative meeting on Dec. 31 to review the bill.
An extraordinary session could be held after the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections to review the general budget for the upcoming fiscal year, DPP caucus director-general Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.
Lawmakers yesterday also approved an amendment to the Organization Act of the National Security Bureau (國家安全局組織法) stipulating that the bureau’s budget must be listed under other government agencies and reviewed by the legislature.
Relevant agencies should list the bureau’s budgetary items in the form of a black budget, the amendment says.
The Executive Yuan, which sponsored the amendment, said that other nations or hostile forces could discern the plans of the intelligence agency by obtaining information on its budget.
To keep the bureau’s work safe from undue interference and protect the safety of intelligence personnel, the bureau’s budgetary items should be listed under other agencies, which would be conducive to safeguarding classified information and reduce risks of intelligence being gathered by external forces, the Cabinet said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
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