A contingent of 227 police officers was deployed by the Taipei City Police Department’s Neihu Precinct yesterday to keep the peace near the Sanlih Television building in Taipei where the second and final presidential debate was held.
At about noon, various protest groups started setting up their banners, staging skits and chanting slogans.
Among the protesters were dozens of landowners from Taipei’s Wufenpu (五分埔) garment district demanding that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) produce a solution regarding eight families that were unlisted when the city government relocated residents in 1955 to enlarge roads.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
There were also representatives of families from New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊) who were forced to relocate to make way for an MRT maintenance depot, who demanded that the presidential candidates address the issue of housing relocation.
Members of the Anti-Forced Relocation Alliance also protested against the Urban Planning Act (都市計畫法) and the Urban Space Rezoning Enforcement Act (市地重劃實施辦法), criticizing the laws as outdated and not allowing a sufficient level of public consultation.
The protesters called for the three presidential candidates not to ignore the suffering of the public.
Members of The People Are The Boss — a left-wing political party established in 2011 — also protested at the site, criticizing KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫), Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) over what they described as the candidates’ failures to uphold justice in their housing policies.
The three political parties seemed to have a consensus on not touching the real-estate issue, the members added.
The protesters dispersed peacefully after voicing their demands.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at