The Presidential Office yesterday said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was duty-bound to push judicial reform after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused Ma of interfering in the judiciary.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said it was the DPP’s choice to focus its concern on the corruption cases against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), but Ma must heed the public’s feelings and expectations about judicial reform.
“There is no excuse for the president to avoid his duty to push judicial reform,” Lo said, adding that Ma would strictly adhere to his constitutional duty and not interfere in any ongoing legal cases regardless of the strong public opinion that he should do so.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“There are certain things you just cannot do, and that has always been the president’s stance,” he said. “However, he cannot shirk his responsibility to take the lead in reforming the nation’s systems.”
Lo made the remarks in response to DPP accusations that Ma was meddling in the justice system when he said on Tuesday that he would exhaust his ability to push judicial reform.
Ma said on Tuesday that he would never interfere in any individual cases, but it did not necessarily mean that he would ignore public anger over some judges whose rulings “ran against people’s reasonable expectations.”
“I have heard those voices and will keep them in my heart,” he said during a dinner with the heads of the executive, legislative and judicial branches and their deputies, as well as Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘).
Earlier on Tuesday, Ma said he was happy to see the legislature decide to review the draft bill of the judges’ act, which would weed out unqualified judges.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-controlled legislature decided on Monday to push forward a review of the act following the acquittal of Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), on bribery charges on Friday.
Ma said the judiciary should avoid “detaching itself from the outside world” and “departing from public expectations” following the ruling, which prosecutors have said they will appeal.
The Taipei District Court said it found no evidence that Chen took NT$600 million (US$20 million) in exchange for promises not to block separate mergers initiated by Cathay Financial Holdings and Yuanta Financial Holdings.
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