Legislators yesterday censured Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Meng-an (潘孟安), and asked the Control Yuan to initiate impeachment proceedings against Cho.
Cho on Monday refused to countersign a fiscal planning bill passed by the Legislative Yuan on Nov. 14.
He cited concerns that the legislature’s version of the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) would harm national development and infringe on executive authority, saying it was passed in an “undemocratic manner.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, Pan did not report to a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee to give a special report on Cho’s actions.
Both proposals were passed after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers voted in the majority.
TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) and KMT caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) proposed the motion to censure Cho, saying that his actions contravened the Constitution and disrupted constitutional governance.
President William Lai (賴清德) is a “shameless president” and Cho a “rogue premier” who must bear political responsibility, Lo said.
Article 37 of the Constitution says that laws promulgated by the president must be countersigned by the premier to keep presidential power in check, the lawmakers said.
Cho distorted the constitutional meaning of Article 37, as he refused to sign into law an amendment that the legislature had passed, they said.
They called for a resolution issuing the strongest condemnation of Lai and Cho, and demanded they countersign and promulgate all laws that pass a third reading.
The three signed their names to request that the case be referred to the Control Yuan to seek Cho’s impeachment.
Huang also vowed that the TPP would propose an impeachment motion against Lai in the next plenary session, which the president must attend, according to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法).
The Control Yuan said that impeachment cases involving civil servants are handled in accordance with the Control Act (監察法).
At least two members of the Control Yuan must submit a proposal to impeach a public servant who is believed to have contravened the law or have been in dereliction of duty, the Control Yuan said, adding that at least nine other Control Yuan members must review the proposal, which must be passed with a majority vote.
Once an impeachment case is passed, the official can be referred to the disciplinary body for further proceedings, it said.
A presidential impeachment is handled through the Constitutional Court.
It is initiated upon the proposal of more than half of the members of the Legislative Yuan and passed by more than two-thirds of its members, before it is forwarded to the court for adjudication, according to the Additional Articles of the Constitution.
Meanwhile, five legislators submitted a proposal to censure Pan for his refusal to attend yesterday’s committee meeting, during which he was to report on Cho’s refusal to sign the budget allocation act.
As the head of an agency, Pan showed contempt for legislative oversight and the representative office of public opinion, which constitutes a boycott of the legislature, the legislators said.
Under the administrations of former presidents Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Presidential Office secretaries-general have declined invitations to report to the legislature, Pan wrote on Facebook.
His decision not to attend was not the position of any single political party, but a long-standing, non-partisan institutional practice grounded in constitutional norms, Pan said.
The Presidential Office must strictly adhere to the boundaries of constitutional norms, ensuring that in exercising authority, it does not overstep constitutional limits, he said.
Aside from budget-related bills and legislation, the Presidential Office does not go to the Legislative Yuan for questioning, in line with constitutional provisions, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
Moreover, had the legislature been willing to rationally discuss the budget bill and invited Cho to give a full report, he would not have refused to countersign, Chang added.
According to Article 3 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution, the legislature can propose a vote of no confidence in the premier if it disagrees with the premier’s decision not to countersign a bill, he said.
Therefore, mechanisms for mutual oversight, and checks and balances are in place, and the Executive Yuan has not acted unconstitutionally, nor does it require corrective measures, he said.
Under the additional articles, if the premier is removed after a vote of no confidence, they have the right to ask the president to dissolve the legislature.
Cho later told reporters that the opposition lawmakers’ use of constitutional mechanisms to impeach him demonstrate that Taiwan is not a dictatorship.
The vote also proves that although opposition lawmakers significantly slashed the Control Yuan’s budget at the beginning of this year, "at least it has not been rendered completely ineffective like the Constitutional Court," he said.
Cho added that he was willing to face impeachment procedures and hoped everyone could have a proper discussion within the constitutional framework.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Jun-lin, Liu Wan-lin, Su Yung-yao and Kayleigh Madjar
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