The pan-blue legislative caucuses' draft statute on investigating the March 19 shooting still violates the Constitution, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and other groups said yesterday.
Although the pan-blue caucuses claimed two days ago that their finalized version adopted suggestions made by the Judicial Reform Foundation and Prosecutors' Reform Association to avoid violating the Constitution, the groups said that the draft still gave the committee both legislative and judicial powers.
"The pan-blue camp only adopted half of our suggestions," said Kao Yung-cheng (
"At first we were concerned that they combined all legislative, judicial and control powers in the committee, but even after they changed the draft, they still combined the legislative and judicial powers together," he said.
"We also suggested the committee should not be tainted by political maneuvers, but the pan-blue camp still decided to allow the legislative caucuses to hire the committee members," Kao said.
Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
"The pan-blue camp has demanded the committee rise above partisan interests, yet the pan-blue politicians are proposing that the political parties direct how the committee should be formed," Chen said. "They are contradicting themselves."
Chen said that the draft gives the panel power to conduct a criminal investigation, and then to prosecute and press charges, seriously violating prosecutors' investigative power.
"The pan-blue-styled committee doesn't have to be responsible to any other agency, and if the committee violates the law or becomes negligent, no other government agency can monitor it. This violates the principle of power separation and balance," Chen said.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (
"The pan-blue camp wants to control everything related to the shooting on its own. It wants to dominate the investigation, and it is using legislation to legalize its stand. It wants to use its majority in the legislature to twist the process to create `the truth,'" Su said.
The DPP caucus had earlier declared that if the pan-blue version was passed in the legislature on Tuesday, the DPP would definitely demand a constitutional interpretation on the statute, and that the Executive Yuan would also be prepared to return the statute to the Legislative Yuan for reconsideration.
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