Frustrated by the stalemate in the legislature, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"The KMT caucus has to take full responsibility because it has shut the door of negotiation and keeps boycotting bills proposed by the Executive Yuan and the pan-green alliance at the legislature's procedure committee," said DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-te (
The pan-blue dominated committee yesterday voted 18 to 12 in favor of shelving 17 bills proposed by the DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucuses. The bills include the arms procurement plan, confirmation of President Chen Shui-bian's (
While Lien is willing to reconcile with the Chinese Communist Party, he has ordered his party to adopt a "scorched earth" policy to plunge the legislature into a standoff, Lai said.
"We hope the first thing Lien does when he comes home is to help solve the legislative problem," Lai said. "I think it would be more meaningful to help solve domestic problems than to bring back pandas from China."
Despite the opposition voiced by some DPP lawmakers to Lien's return, another DPP caucus whip, Jao Yung-ching (
Lai said that he hopes the legislature passes as many bills and budget plans as possible before the current session ends on May 31 instead of extending the session or even calling a provisional session.
Lai made the remarks in response to a proposal made by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who has indicated that he is under much pressure from the US government to handle the arms procurement plan. Wang has proposed to hold an interim session in July or August to tackle the matter if the legislature fails to pass the arms budget in the current session.
The People First Party (PFP) caucus also voiced opposition to Wang's proposal, saying that it prefers to settle the matter via cross-party negotiations, hopefully by the end of the month.
PFP caucus whip Lee Yong-ping (
The PFP's Chin Hui-chu (
PFP Legislator Wu Ching-chih (
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
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