Members of the Taipei Dome Sub-Contractors Self Help Association yesterday presented a petition to the Control Yuan calling for an investigation into the Taipei City Government’s decision to halt construction of the Taipei Dome.
After presenting the petition, association head Sam Hsu (許志霖) called on the Taipei City Government to publicize the list of construction plan violations on which its order is based, allowing the sub-contractors to move toward resuming construction by addressing the violations.
The legal basis for the construction halt is unclear because in normal circumstances planning violations are only subject to a NT$9,000 fine per violation, payable after construction is completed, he said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“The city government needs to give us a clear answer on what the plan violations are and whether they are related to the main structure,” he said, adding that a resumption of construction should be allowed if the Dome’s main structure is not implicated.
If the city chooses not to resume construction, it should make a decision as soon as possible on whether the structure is to be demolished, because only then could sub-contractors dissolve their contracts with Farglory, he said.
“We’re not here to nit-pick about who is at fault, but now that a construction halt has been ordered we hope for a quick response and decision,” he said, adding that without a resolution, many contractors would go bankrupt or be forced to lay off employees.
Sub-contractors are unable to recover the cost of materials as long as the halt on construction is in place, while banks are denying credit to corporations connected with the project, he said.
Several hundred protesters in hard hats rallied outside the site calling for the Control Yuan to intervene, shouting slogans accusing the city government of abusing its authority and demanding that it “return their livelihood.”
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
RSS