Environmental advocates yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to withdraw three bills that would mandate the government to expand the high-speed rail system to the east coast, build an expressway connecting Hualien and Taitung counties, and extend the Shuishalian Freeway (Freeway No. 6) to Hualien.
The bills were hastily proposed and would damage the environment, members of the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and other environmental groups said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called the three bills “money pit” legislation.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), a former Hualien County commissioner, is the main proponent of the proposals, the DPP said.
If passed the bills would cost the nation NT$2 trillion (US$61.97 billion) and the government would be required to finish construction within 10 years, the party said.
The one-month negotiation period for bills involving the around-the-nation high-speed rail system and the Hualien-Taitung expressway have expired, meaning they should have been on the legislative agenda, but are not, it added.
The environmental groups said they opposed the projects, as the risks have yet to be scrutinized under the Budget Act (預算法), the Spatial Planning Act (國土計畫法), the Land Expropriation Act (土地徵收條例), the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) and the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法).
The KMT should withdraw the bills, they said.
The bills say that the projects must be completed in no more than 10 years, Wild at Heart chairman Chen Hsien-cheng (陳憲政) told a news conference in Taipei.
“The lawmakers who proposed the bills have shown a complete disregard for the time needed to secure approval from the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee, as well as the procedures required to expropriate property,” Chen said. “They set a bad example of the legislative branch infringing on the authority of the executive branch.”
The projects also contravened the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act by not seeking consent from indigenous people, Chen said.
If the projects were built and operated by private contractors before ownership transferred to the government, access to the systems would be controlled by private contractors, he said.
Development projects of this kind would destroy the homes of indigenous people and allow big corporations to control their means of survival, he said.
Taiwan Friends of the Global Greens chairman Lee Chun-hsiang (李春祥) said that the Constitution stipulates that the Legislative Yuan must not propose bills that increase the budget.
“The Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法) also stipulates that the executive branch, not the legislative branch, has the authority to formulate plans for projects,” Lee said. “The legislature would overstep its authority and infringe on that of the executive branch if it designates projects to be implemented and forces the National Development Council to formulate plans.”
The bills would require the government to allocate a budget without having to adhere to debt ceiling requirements, Chen said.
“The budget would be loosely compiled if the debt ceiling were removed without any compelling reason,” he said. “I am afraid we are leaving debt to our next generation.”
Trust in Nature Foundation chairman Chen Jui-pin (陳瑞賓) said that the bills should be withdrawn because none of them has been reviewed by the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee.
“These projects would have a huge impact on the economy, as well as the social and natural environment in Hualien and Taitung counties,” Chen Jui-pin said.
“Drilling through the Central Mountain Range to build a freeway would destroy many natural habitats. There has been no discussion, and nobody knows which corridor would be used to build the freeway and how much it would cost,” he said. “It is a terrible bill.”
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS