Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday accused the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of attempting to derail production of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s COVID-19 vaccine, most recently by demanding that the Ministry of Health and Welfare and three other agencies issue reports on its authorization process.
The TPP is following the KMT’s path by playing partisan politics and casting doubt on the process by which the domestic Medigen vaccine was granted emergency use authorization, in order to hamper its production, DPP legislative caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) told a media briefing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Lo showed an official document, bearing the TPP legislative caucus letterhead and dated yesterday, which asked four government ministries and agencies to each table a report on the emergency use authorization process for the Medigen vaccine.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The document specifically asked the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Ministry of Justice to present independent reports at an online meeting on Monday next week on the “stock price fluctuations of Taiwanese vaccine developers when the Ministry of Health and Welfare granted the emergency use authorization.”
The TPP also asked the health ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to each present a report at the same meeting to explain the reasons for granting a domestic vaccine emergency use authorization, “but not needing to conform to international standards,” and to explain “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs having issued fake news to endorse a certain Taiwanese vaccine developer before its test results were released.”
The letter said the meeting would be convened by TPP Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) and asked that the official representatives of each of the four government agencies present the reports.
The TPP asked to be provided with a list of attendees by 10am tomorrow.
“The TPP is plotting to derail domestic vaccine production, just like the KMT is doing,” Lo said. “It is preposterous for the TPP to do so by contravening the legislature’s rules, by issuing a letter to demand that these government bodies present reports when the legislature is in recess.”
Legislators should exercise their authority when the legislature is in session, and deliberations by political parties regarding oversight of government bodies are conducted at legislative committee meetings, Lo said.
He called on the four agencies not to respond to the TPP’s requests.
Lo said that the KMT has spread misinformation about the Medigen vaccine to mislead the public.
“The KMT has filed a lawsuit with the Taipei District Court, and has also requested that the Control Yuan conduct a probe into wrongdoing by government officials during the process,” Lo said. “We ask opposition parties to let science do the talking and not obstruct Taiwan’s vaccine production.”
“The KMT is colluding with the Chinese government, by helping China’s attempts at blockading us,” DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said.
“We urge KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) to refrain from the extreme tactics used by his party’s members, and instead provide suggestions on how to help Taiwan to fight the domestic [COVID-19] situation,” Cheng said.
“We ask Chiang to use reason. By filing a judicial complaint against Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), the KMT is obstructing the efforts of Chen and medical professionals working diligently to fight the [COVID-19] pandemic,” Cheng said.
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