The acting head of the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that while he was pleased to hear the apology of those who had wrongfully accused him of sexual harassment, he was not considering withdrawing the libel suit filed against his accusers on Thursday.
"Since the legal process is already underway, the punishment is not something to bargain over at this moment," Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), the acting secretary general of the DOH said yesterday at a press conference at the DOH.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Twu made the remark at a press conference held shortly after declining to receive Cheng Ko-jung (鄭可榮) and PFP lawmaker Diane Lee (李慶安) who had gone to the DOH to try to apologize to Twu in person.
In an earlier news conference called by Cheng and Lee yesterday morning, Cheng apologized for wrongfully accusing Twu, saying that he had realized on Friday afternoon -- after seeing the face of Tu Hau-lin (屠豪麟), head of personnel at the DOH, on television -- that it was the latter, not Twu, who had harassed him.
Twu said that if Cheng had "admitted to his mistake earlier," he would have forgiven him.
"I gave Cheng many opportunities in the past few days to admit his mistake,"he said.
"I even followed him to the KTV parlor so that he would have a chance to confirm whether I was the person he believed had harassed him on the night of Aug. 6."
"I can only say that, although I am pleased to hear the apology, the harm has already been done."
Twu filed a libel suit against his accusers on Thursday, demanding NT$50 million in compensation.
Despite Twu's remarks, his lawyer Tsai Mao-sung (
"They should give a thorough and honest account to the public -- of the background to the allegations, all influencing factors and other aspects of the allegations that remain unclear," said Tsai.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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