Accusations of housing injustice leveled against the central government by opposition presidential candidates are nothing but a smokescreen for their failures as mayors, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張志豪) said yesterday.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate, on Sunday acccused the DPP administration of mishandling housing policy and infringing on judicial neutrality at a rally in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
Chang told a news conference in Taipei that Ko and Hou “talked loudly about housing justice, but are themselves tied up with interest groups and developers.”
Photo: CNA
Local governments need to work with the central government to fight the housing crises, but Hou and Ko did not do so while in office, he said.
Hou was booed at the rally for completing a bare 2,678 social housing units and making New Taipei City the only one among the six special municipalities that does not have a property hoarding tax, Chang said.
Ko claimed to have built 50,000 social housing units in Taipei, but the city only awarded construction contracts for 12,559 units, meaning 75 percent of the former mayor’s affordable housing projects did not come to fruition, he said.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Taipei ranked first in the property price index and saw the largest drop in number of residents among the six special municipalities, he said.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) National Housing and Urban Regeneration Center has awarded contracts to speed up the construction of 33,584 housing units while giving Taipei and New Taipei City NT$4.5 billion (US$144.9 million) and NT$3 billion in housing subsidies respectively, he said.
Ko’s comments at the protest contradicted statements he had made as mayor, when he said public housing would only increase the city’s debts, said Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶), the DPP’s legislative candidate for Taipei’s Fifth Electoral District.
Some of the units in the Minglun Social Housing Project that was built under Ko’s tenure to fulfill his campaign promise of constructing affordable housing charged tenants an unaffordable NT$40,000 in monthly rent, she said.
Tseng Po-yu (曾柏瑜), the DPP’s legislative candidate for New Taipei City’s 11th Electoral District, said her opponent, KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), comes from a family with alleged links to organized crime and building contractors.
Hou backing Lo during the KMT nomination process makes a mockery of his stance on housing justice, she said.
Justin Wu (吳崢), the DPP legislative candidate for New Taipei City’s Eighth Electoral District, said his KMT opponent, Chang Chih-lun (張智倫), is the son of Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), a former lawmaker and real-estate tycoon.
Hou should not be talking about housing justice when he is an ally of speculators and local political dynasties, he said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,