Following two derailments, a major flood that paralyzed Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and a strike by China Airlines (CAL) flight attendants — all within one month — Vice Premier Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) yesterday held the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) responsible, urging it to conduct a detailed and thorough review of its functions.
Speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting, Lin said that the flooding, the derailed trains and the strike, which started at midnight yesterday, are all problems that involved management to various extents, and as the ministry in charge of transportation, it should conduct a thorough review of its businesses.
“First it was the CAL pilots who protested labor conditions [last month] and now it is the flight attendants,” Lin said. “With the appointment of a new CAL chairman, we must take the initiative to negotiate between the employer and the employees at CAL.”
The vice premier said poor management of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) was to blame for the second derailment in a month due to warped tracks in Hualien County.
“We still do not know the exact reason the rails were bent, leading to the second derailment in a month yesterday [Wednesday],” Lin said. “The TRA said it was because of high temperatures, but I am not convinced that the temperature was not taken into consideration when building the railroad — and the railroad should not become deformed however high the temperature is.”
As for the flooding that paralyzed Taoyuan airport earlier in the month, Lin blamed the management.
“Whether it is Taoyuan airport or the TRA, I am sure many problems have accumulated in both organizations and I would like the ministry to continue to review the problems and make changes,” Lin said. “Besides holding people responsible and changing those who are accountable, the ministry should find out the real causes of the problems.”
Meanwhile, Lin responded to former premier Mao Chi-kuo’s (毛治國) criticism in an interview published yesterday by the Chinese-language United Daily News that a proposal by Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers to move some flights to Taichung and Kaohsiung airports to help ease the burden for Taoyuan airport was “bowing to populism.”
Lin said that the government is trying to solve problems and regretted Mao’s criticism.
“Mao has served as the minister of transportation for five years, can he explain why he was talking as if all these problems have nothing to do with him?” Lin asked.
In related news, during a news conference after the Cabinet meeting, Cabinet spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said that the Cabinet is to withdraw as many as 115 legislative proposals forwarded to the Legislative Yuan prior to the presidential inauguration last month.
Proposals to be withdrawn include bills on monitoring cross-strait negotiations and agreements, long-term care insurance, and amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉免法).
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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