President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Thursday that he had no immediate plans to reduce Vice President Vincent Siew’s (蕭萬長) workload after the 70-year-old Siew underwent lung surgery last week.
Two malignant tumors were removed from Siew’s left lung last Wednesday at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
Siew will remain hospitalized until sometime next week. There has been no word on whether he will receive chemotherapy.
Ma, who is on a 10-day trip to Central America, shrugged off concerns about Siew’s workload during a press conference with Taiwanese press in Belize. He said Siew was recovering well after surgery and it shouldn’t be a problem for him to return to work soon.
“So far there’s no need to make any changes [to Siew’s workload] ... Vice President Siew feels good and is making a good recovery. He should be able to return to work soon,” Ma said.
He said he had contacted Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) on Thursday after a large swathe of Central America was rocked by a large earthquake off the coast of Honduras on Thursday morning and Liu gave him an update on Siew.
Ma said Liu had told him that Siew was in better condition than media reports had indicated and he should be able to return to work after recuperating from surgery.
The Taiwanese delegation was unaffected by the earthquake.
Ma was scheduled to travel to Guatemala yesterday for a two-day visit before heading to El Salvador, where he will attend the inauguration of president-elect Mauricio Funes on Monday.
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