A senior official from the National Police Administration (NPA) announced yesterday that his office would not pass on a proposed amendment to traffic regulations to the Legislative Yuan, after the proposed change generated a public uproar.
"The NPA decided to withdraw its plan to overhaul the Road Traffic Management and Punishment Law (
The police administration announced on Tuesday that they were considering asking for stricter punishments for drunk drivers.
Ruling and opposition lawmakers expressed their disagreement with the planned revisions when they interpellated Ho at the legislature's Home and Nations Committee meeting yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative leader Tsai Huan-lan (蔡煌瑯) argued that the proposed punishments were too harsh.
"The planned punishment related to drunk motorists goes against social conventions. It is also inhumane and violates the spirit of the constitution," Tsai said.
The revisions proposed by the NPA suggested that not only motorists found with alcohol in their bloodstream would be fined, but persons providing alcohol to motorists testing 0.25mg of alcohol per liter and above would also face fines of up to NT$12,000.
The NPA also contended that providers of alcoholic drinks to drunk drivers included restaurants or friends of the intoxicated motorist.
Furthermore, adult passengers of drunk drivers would be subject to fines ranging from NT$3,000 to NT$12,000, according to the proposed amendment. Ho explained that adult passengers should shoulder the responsibility of letting a drunk driver operate his or her vehicle.
DPP members said they endorse more discussions on revising current traffic laws, in order to lower the number of people who are killed in accidents caused by drunk drivers.
"But we disagree with a radical change of the law. We hope that the administration would be more cautious when mapping out the revision and bring it to the public only after extensive discussions," said DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Tsao Yuan-chang (
"It is unreasonable to punish people providing alcohol to drunk drivers," he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cho Po-yuan (
"Subordinates of the Ministry of Justice [MOI] should review their incongruity, which led to an improper announcement of policy overhaul before the matter has been settled," he said.
Interior Minister Yu Cheng-hsien (
"I support most parts of the opinions flighted in the proposed amendment, except the idea of punishing alcohol providers and people urging others to drink," Yu told lawmakers.
He said the idea merely acted as advice for promoting traffic safety and was not a proposal for formulating a revised policy.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS