The opposition parties yesterday again blocked the Cabinet’s version of the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) and the NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee.
The opposition parties also passed the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposal to invite President William Lai (賴清德) to the legislature for a question-and-answer session on national security matters and defense costs.
Lai on Monday night issued a video saying that he was willing to do so, provided that the procedures involved in such an event are in line with Paragraph 3, Article 4 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) and related Constitutional Court rulings.
yesterday.Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The legislature’s version of the act undermined the separation of powers, the nation’s finances and harmed people’s rights, he said.
The legislature’s consecutive abuse of legislative power is undermining Taiwan’s democracy, he said, adding that “at such a time, the president must uphold the nation’s constitutional system, protect the country and its people.”
Separately, the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee convener, KMT Legislator Wen Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), has put an item on today’s agenda.
The committee would hold a session asking officials, including the secretaries-general of the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice, to deliver a report on whether the president and the premier would be legally responsible if they did not announce laws and countersign legislation.
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