The Taipei City Government has convened an ad hoc committee to consider halting the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project, as reports indicated that Taipei prosecutors would soon wrap up their corruption probe into the development and announce formal charges.
Headed by Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川), the committee would assess the outcome of the probe and any charges filed before determining a course of action, including halting construction, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told reporters yesterday.
The committee includes officials from the Taipei Department of Urban Development, Taipei Construction Management Office and other city agencies, including the departments of legal affairs and government ethics, along with experts and academics, Chiang said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The investigation into the development of Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall, in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) started amid suspicion about the sharp increase in the floor area ratio (FAR) from 560 percent to 840 percent during Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) tenure as mayor from 2014 to 2022.
Ko has been detained and held incommunicado without charge for more than 100 days as part of the probe.
He is among more than 20 people being investigated in relation to the development, including other city officials and Core Pacific Group (威京集團) founder and chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), who prosecutors said paid NT$47.4 million (US$1.45 million) in bribes to sway government officials to increase the FAR.
Taipei Department of Urban Development officials had said they would meet within two weeks of a formal indictment, and based on the investigation would rescind portions of the FAR and revoke the project’s permit.
Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) of the Social Democratic Party said Chiang and his administration had been dragging their feet in responding to the probe.
“They should not wait for an indictment to decide to revoke the project’s construction permit,” she said.
The Control Yuan already conducted an investigation and determined that the project had contravened land use and development regulations stipulated under the Urban Planning Act (都市計畫法), she said.
“Chiang and city officials have been too slow and taken action too late,” Miao said, adding that although most people are aware of the accusations, Chiang was waiting on a formal indictment.
“Maybe he will say: ‘Let us wait until the appeals and the final verdict on the case,’ before the city government would conduct an investigation and take appropriate measures,” she said.
“Taipei residents would not accept such a delayed response from Chiang. He and the city government are clearly waiting to find excuses to protect corporations, to drag out the process to allow the project’s completion,” she added.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS