Lawmakers from across party lines will issue a resolution at tomorrow's plenary legislative session asking the Cabinet to send its 13 nominations for the National Communications Commission (NCC) to the Legislative Yuan for confirmation.
The consensus was reached during a cross-party negotiation session chaired by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday to resolve the deadlock over the confirmation dispute.
The confirmation is listed as the second bill for discussion on the legislative agenda tomorrow.
If fewer than seven NCC members pass the confirmation, the nomination process for vacancies has to start again from scratch.
Despite this rare cooperation, DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), who doubles as the director of the party's Policy Committee, said last night that after consultation between the Cabinet and the DPP caucus, the Cabinet decided it would appeal to the Council of Grand Justices on the NCC bill.
The Organic Law of the National Communications Commission (NCC, 國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) says the premier must inaugurate the 13 recommended NCC members seven days after selection by the review committee, pending ratification by the legislature.
The Executive Yuan was supposed to send the list of nominees recommended by the review panel to the legislature on Dec. 18.
The Cabinet said it would like the panel to replace Lu Chung-chin (呂忠津) before sending the list to the legislature for verification.
Lu, a National Tsinghua University professor, withdrew his name two days after he was recommended by the panel.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
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