A couple from the Philippines and their two nieces have been accused of illegally practicing dentistry after entering Taiwan as tourists, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said on Tuesday.
In August 2023, the Taoyuan Department of Public Health received a tip-off about foreign nationals suspected of running a dental operation in Taoyuan District (桃園) in contravention of the Physicians Act (醫師法), the prosecutors’ office said.
Investigators went to the property on Linsen Road and encountered a woman working as a dentist, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office
Further investigation by a task force of prosecutors, police and public health officials determined that a husband and wife from the Philippines were running the clinic, while the woman they had encountered was their niece, it said.
Investigators determined that the couple had entered and exited Taiwan multiple times as short-term, visa-free tourists, and provided unauthorized medical treatment to migrant workers at the site from February 2023 until Aug. 2, 2023, when the public health department conducted an inspection, the prosecutors’ office said.
They resumed operations at a site on Jhonghua Road in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) from September last year until April 17, when prosecutors led a search and found the couple and two others performing dental procedures such as brace adjustments, teeth whitening and denture fitting, including injections of drugs, it said.
Authorities seized NT$299,500 in alleged illegal income, along with medical equipment and devices, it said.
At the time of the raid, 20 people were waiting for treatment, it said.
All four suspects were detained following court approval, it added.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
RSS