The People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday expressed conditional support for the Cabinet's arms procurement plan, but reiterated opposition to addressing the issue in a proposed special legislative session.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Nelson Ku (
The DPP caucus has requested the lawmaking body deal with the stymied arms procurement bill, as well as five other bills they deem urgent, during a provisional session.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is scheduled to call an informal plenary meeting on Friday to discuss the DPP's proposal. If the opposition caucuses agree to grant the ruling party's wish, the session is expected to take place on Monday and Tuesday.
Despite the PFP's reluctance to deal with the arms procurement plan during the proposed session, Ku said his caucus would support the package during the upcoming regular legislative session, on condition that it is earmarked as a regular annual budget.
The Cabinet is proposing funding the purchase through a special budget.
His caucus will also support the plan if the nation's defense budget is raised to 3 percent of GDP. Currently, the defense budget accounts for only 2.4 percent of GDP. President Chen Shui-bian (
Ku also called on the government to buy the three proposed items separately.
The proposed package includes eight diesel-electric submarines, 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and three PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, which would be purchased from the US.
Echoing Ku's three preconditions, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) said that it is very "inappropriate" and "irresponsible" to screen such an expensive budget during such a short special session.
His caucus is expected to come to a final decision on whether to support the extraordinary session today.
Cho said that the attitude of his caucus hinges on whether the DPP is willing to make some goodwill gestures toward their requests.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Mark Ho (
They are the eight-year, NT$80 billion flood-control plan; confirmation of the president's list of Control Yuan members and legal revisions to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法).
He also proposed to extend the proposed special session to two weeks if pan-blue caucuses agree to call the special session to deal with the four bills.
He agreed with Ku that defense spending must reach 3 percent of GDP.
He also proposed that the P-3C aircraft be purchased from the regular budget, with a special budget being used to buy the submarines and missile batteries.
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