The Executive Yuan yesterday approved Li Meng-yen’s (李孟諺) resignation as minister of transportation and communications following revelations of a 10-year extramarital affair.
Li tendered his verbal resignation to President William Lai (賴清德) and Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday afternoon. He then announced his decision to resign in a written statement.
“I am deeply sorry for my personal behavior in the past, which has troubled my wife and my family, and left a poor public perception of public officials. As such, I have tendered my verbal resignation to President William Lai and Premier Cho Jung-tai this afternoon. I hope that the public will not lose confidence in the transportation ministry and the Cabinet because of what I did in the past,” Li said in the statement.
Photo: CNA
Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said that Cho thanked Li for his dedication to his duties when he was Executive Yuan secretary-general and as transportation minister.
“As the transportation minister, Li was in charge of resuming railway and highway services, and reviving tourism after Hualien County suffered serious infrastructure damage following the magnitude 7.2 [on the Richter scale] earthquake on April 3,” Chen said. “He also dealt with the road damage caused by Typhoon Gaemi after it made landfall in Taiwan on July 24. His performance as a government official should be applauded.”
“The premier respected Li’s personal decision to resign and affirmed his attitude of taking full responsibility for his personal actions,” Chen said.
Li assumed the post on May 20 during Lai’s inauguration — making him the nation’s shortest-serving transportation minister.
A post on the online bulletin board system Professional Technology Temple at 10:59am yesterday alleged that the affair started when Li was the director-general of Tainan’s Water Resources Bureau.
The post included photographs of Li and the woman together, saying that the affair appeared to have cooled off recently.
The woman only began talking about her relationship with Li after he left her when he was promoted to minister, the post said.
Li traveled with the press corps to Pingtung County on Sunday to inspect the Highway Bureau’s land crab protection program.
He was scheduled to return to Taipei yesterday afternoon after a brief tour of the Kenting Weather Radar Station, which ended at about 10am.
Li reportedly avoided the press corps by changing his high-speed rail ticket and boarded the train from the Tainan station instead of the one in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營).
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