The legislature’s Procedure Committee yesterday voted against scheduling a debate on next year’s budget as opposition legislators said the proposed budget was missing funding items that were omitted by the Cabinet.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday last week used their combined legislative majority to vote to return next year’s proposed budget to the Procedure Committee, which organizes bills and determines which are to be discussed and when.
The committee voted nine to seven with one abstention to not schedule a hearing for the budget, which led to the committee’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members raising protest signs.
Photo: Chen Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
All but one of KMT and TPP committee members voted against scheduling a hearing with the sole abstention being KMT Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋).
When the meeting started, KMT caucus whip Lin Tzu-ming (林思銘) moved to postpone all 12 proposals. While this is allowed, it is unprecedented, said DPP Legislator Shen Fa-hui (沈發惠), who chairs the committee.
The decision to postpone the budget review could result in other committees not having their own budget proposals to review, he added.
KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) pushed back on Shen’s statement, saying that the budget needs to be redrafted to include important amendments passed earlier this year, like increased logging compensation for indigenous people, higher prices for national food stocks and National Health Insurance point adjustments.
The KMT is asking the administration to incorporate these resolutions into the budget and ensure the government is spending taxpayers’ money appropriately, he added.
He accused the DPP of having postponed prior budgets, such as in 2008, which resulted in several DPP officials clarifying that past budgets were never postponed, only critiqued.
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) accused the opposition legislators of putting on a show, harming the nation and not actually reading the proposed budget.
The proposed budget included a 3 percent salary raise for public servants and school subsidies, she said.
If the opposition parties have issues with individual ministry budgets, those could be raised in committee reviews, rather than postponing the whole budget, DPP Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) expressed dismay at the committee’s decision, saying that the budget could be explained, discussions could be held and dissenting views would be respected.
DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) called the decision irrational and claimed that it “erodes” Taiwan’s democracy. She also warned the opposition that public opinion would turn against them.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin and Chen Cheng-yu
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS