The Presidential Office yesterday declined calls from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) politicians for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to declare a state of emergency over the COVID-19 situation, saying that any contingencies can be addressed by existing legislation.
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) told a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that the government should consider issuing emergency presidential orders to provide a legal basis for local governments to arrange or call for disease prevention items and also resolve any questions regarding restrictions imposed on the public.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the KMT said that the government should bar Taiwanese from traveling to countries listed in a Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) level 3 “warning” travel advisory, bar visitors from those nations from entering Taiwan within 30 days of their nations being listed and halt the importation of foreign workers during the pandemic.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
TPP Legislator Jang Chyi-lu (張其祿) said that restrictions under Act 7 of the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) are questionable and could be infringing on constitutionally guaranteed rights.
However, such restrictions are well within the parameters of a state of emergency decree, so instead of applying for a constitutional interpretation or filing for an amendment to clarify whether such restrictions are legal, Tsai should just issue an emergency decree and remove all legal doubts, Jang said.
The Presidential Office said emergency decrees should only be issued in cases of national emergencies or during a financial tumult that would otherwise lack a legal basis.
Under the Constitution, any emergency decree issued by the president must be ratified by the Legislative Yuan, the office said.
The post-SARS amendment to the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法) and the special act have provided legal bases for nearly all disease prevention efforts, office spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said, adding that an emergency decree was not issued during the SARS outbreak.
Since martial law was lifted in 1987, a state of emergency has only be declared once, after the 921 Earthquake in 1999, Chang said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
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