The National Women’s League (NWL) on Sunday said it would respond once it receives formal notice of a lawsuit filed by authorities alleging it has failed to vacate or pay for continued use of its repossessed premises in Taipei.
The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee in May last year ordered the league’s charitable arm, the NWL Foundation for Social Welfare, to return the Mei Ling Building (美齡樓) in Taipei after determining that the land was an improperly sold national asset.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had sold the land in Zhongzheng District (中正) to the foundation for NT$1.05 billion (US$35.3 million).
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
The league had immediately filed for an injunction to prevent the building being repossessed, which the Supreme Administrative Court in July last year overturned, ordering its immediate repossession.
The National Property Administration (NPA) then allegedly notified the foundation that it should pay NT$1.06 million per month for use of the property, which the foundation reportedly believed should be charged to the NWL.
An NPA official on Sunday said the agency’s Taipei branch had in January filed a civil suit at the Taipei District Court seeking NT$129.4 million from the league and foundation for the presumptive 10-year use of the property plus back pay for the past 10 months of “illegal occupation.”
The agency had to turn to the courts to decide who is to pay, as the NWL and its foundation could not come to a decision on their own, they added.
According to the NPA, the foundation owes NT$1.68 million for occupying the building from Aug. 26 to Oct. 13 last year.
After Oct. 14, the league and its foundation owed NT$1.06 million monthly for use of the premises, totaling NT$8.51 million for the past eight months, it added, and totaling NT$10.19 million for the previous 10 months.
Past use of the building, as well as NT$1.06 million monthly for 10 years, comes to a total of NT$129.4 million, in addition to court fees of NT$1.11 million.
However, the court has yet to set a date for the hearing, the official said.
League chairwoman Joanna Lei (雷倩) said the group has not yet received notice of the suit and would respond through its lawyers once confirmed.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) on Sunday accused the league of failing to heed its responsibility to realize historical justice.
The Mei Ling Building has already been determined to be an ill-gotten state asset and returned to the public, but the NWL is refusing to return it and has not paid for the right to occupy the premises, Lai said.
“If the NWL still has a sense of shame, it should vacate the building and find another place to work instead of continuing to occupy public property,” he said.
He also called on the NPA to “toughen up” and on the court to handle the matter as soon as possible, as the NT$1.06 million in monthly fees would compound quickly.
The Mei Ling Building stands in the heart of Taipei and, if returned to the government, could soon serve a better use, Lai added.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS