Lawmakers yesterday approved the budget for the state-sponsored Legal Aid Foundation, along with a resolution that asked the foundation to find out why almost 90 percent of Aboriginal litigants have decided to appear in court without the foundation’s attorneys.
The foundation’s mission is to assist people who are in need of professional legal help, but cannot afford legal fees, so they can exercise their constitutional rights to litigation and equality.
It has 22 branches and legal service centers nationwide dedicated to helping Aborigines.
According to the budget proposal, the foundation’s projected expenditure and revenue for the next fiscal year are each total NT$1.52 billion (US$50.05 million).
Since the launch of a special project that assigns lawyers to accompany Aboriginal litigants to court, 8,076 litigants have obtained help from the foundation, a motion sponsored by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chou Chun-mi (周春米) said.
However, the percentage of Aborigines who have declined the foundation’s help, 87 percent — or 83,057 people — far exceeds the percentage who accepted it, the motion states.
The foundation should investigate the discrepancy to find out if the reason that so many Aborigines have not sought the foundation’s help is because they do not know about its services, the large number of Aboriginal litigants charged with endangering public safety or other reasons, and then report to the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws Committee within two months, it says.
The motion was cosponsored by DPP legislators Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), Chung Kung-chao (鍾孔紹) and Yu Mei-nu (尤美女).
In other developments at the Legislative Yuan, during cross-party negotiations lawmakers reached an agreement to have Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) report on the special budget for the procurement of 66 F-16Vs to the legislature on Tuesday next week and take questions.
The budget for the fighters totals NT$247.2 billion.
The lawmakers also requested that Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發), Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) and Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) attend the Tuesday meeting.
During later negotiations, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) proposed allowing the Legislative Yuan to recess on Dec. 17 so that lawmakers seeking re-election can focus on their campaigns.
The proposal was backed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party caucuses.
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) asked the New Power Party, which has not given its consent, to consider Ker’s proposal.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS