Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members yesterday called Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
DPP Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (
Ma, who stands accused of embezzling part of his monthly special allowance during his time as Taipei Mayor, will receive the verdict next week.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
Prosecutors found that, from December 1998 to last July, Ma had wired half of his monthly special allowance -- NT$170,000 -- directly into a personal account, and indicted him in February.
However, Ma said during his ongoing trial that he had taken the special allowance funds given to public officials, including during his eight-year tenure as Taipei mayor, because he regarded the money as part of his income as a government official.
"Ma knew very well that the mayoral special allowance is a public fund and should be used only for work-related purposes," Hsu said. "But some media organizations, Ma's campaign team and his lawyers are defending Ma as `not having intended to embezzle' because he didn't know" the rules.
Hsu backed up his accusations with a video recording of a conversation between Ma and Yen during a Taipei City Council question-and-answer session when Ma was still mayor of Taipei.
In the video, Ma said "we do not use the special allowance for private expenditure," when asked by Yen if this was allowed.
When Yen asked if the special allowance fund could only be used for public purposes, Ma said "yes."
Ma states in the video that "the special allowance fund is clearly separate from my personal expenditure ... I never used the special allowance for private purposes, don't worry," and "my special allowance fund has only been used for official affairs or public welfare."
When Yen asked what Ma would do if he used the special allowance for private purposes, Ma answered: "I'll take whatever penalty if you can prove it."
"If we find out one day that you used the special allowance fund for private purposes, would you retire from politics?" Yen asked at the end of the video.
"Yes," Ma replied.
"Ma is lying to everyone," Yen told the press conference. "He should be ashamed of himself and retire from politics as promised."
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS