Two Taipei City councilors yesterday reiterated that they were not involved in the financial scandal surrounding the Jin-Wen Institute of Technology (
Investigators on Monday summoned DPP City Councilor Chen Shu-hua (
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
While Chen and Lin Yi-hua were released late Monday evening after questioning, Lin Chao-hsien was released after posting NT$2 million bail yesterday morning.
Chen and Lin held separate press conferences at the city council yesterday morning.
While Chen denied that she had taken the monthly fees from the school, Lin admitted that she had received the money from the group from September 1999 until March of this year.
"It's not against the law for politicians to accept funding from private sector organizations which approve of your political ideals," Lin said. "I'm willing to refuse such offers if the public is not well disposed to the idea. I do hope there'll be clear-cut rules for me to follow in the future, though."
Chen said she had "never taken a cent in consultation fees from Jin-Wen, nor have any of my family members."
She admitted, however, that she had received donations from the Jin-Wen Group last year when she established her campaign office.
"Donations are different from consultation fees since it's a common practice for politicians to accept donations, and donations do not come with conditions," she said.
Chen, however, said that she did not remember the amount she had received or how many donations she had been given from the group.
Chen also denied that she had been summoned by investigators for questioning, and said that she had instead taken the initiative to telephone them that she intended to meet them with her husband to give them more information.
Chen added that she had never "expressed any concern" or "questioned any issues" relating to the private school on the council floor or during city council committee meetings since taking office in December 1998.
But when reporters noted that she had questioned the legality of a dormitory building in which her son was staying, Chen conceded that she had asked the question in public but not on the council floor.
She added that she had known the former chairman of the group, Chang Wan-li (
"Chang was the only one who had faith in my son, who was considered a `bad student' at school ... I owe a debt of personal gratitude to him because my son finally passed the college entrance exam and entered a national college," she said.
Chen said that although she had been an advisor to the Jin-Wen institute since 1998, the position was purely an "honorary" one.
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