Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) complained yesterday that former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) monthly pension as a retired vice president is bigger than President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) salary.
"He [Lien] now earns a monthly paycheck [pension] of NT$470,000 [US$13,952] as a retired vice president, which is more than the president's monthly paycheck. Is that reasonable?" said Gao, who is secretary-general of the DPP's Justice Alliance.
Both the pan-green camp and pan-blue camp yesterday proposed their own amendments to the "Statute Governing Preferential Treatment to Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents" (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例) to abolish or reduce the stipends paid to former leaders.
The law states that former presidents and vice presidents get a life-time pension. The pan-green camp proposes paying former presidents a pension for 12 years, while former vice presidents would get a pension for four years. They want to reduce the size of the pensions as well, but have yet to propose final figures.
The pan-blue camp proposes paying former presidents and vice presidents pensions for just five years. But they think their should be a "penalty" clause.
"If the country's economy slows down, their pensions will drop, too," said KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順).
Huang also suggested that the paychecks for all presidential advisers be cut as well.
"Our final version of the amendment will be discussed during the legislative meeting next Monday," she said. "If we want to reform, we shall reform everything, from the top to the bottom."
The pension issue became a hot topic after DPP Legislator Lin Chuo-shui (林濁水) proposed looking into the appropriateness of using taxpayer money to pay for a lifetime's worth of preferential treatment for former presidents and vice presidents.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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