Lawmakers yesterday failed to reach a consensus on expanding redevelopment of military dependents’ villages, with opponents saying the plan would use taxpayer money to enrich certain people.
Cross-party caucus deliberations on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-proposed amendment to Article 3 of the Act for Rebuilding Old Quarters for Military Dependents (國軍老舊眷村改建條例) failed to gain traction and would be further discussed during the full sitting of the Legislative Yuan, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said.
On Dec. 31 last year, KMT legislators Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) and Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) put forth proposals to amend the act.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
The act defines “military dependents’ villages” as buildings built before 1980.
Lo said that the act’s classification is outdated and should be revised to “dependents’ buildings completed before the act took effect and having an urgent need for renovations.”
Ma’s version states that all dependents’ villages in need of renovation, regardless of when they were constructed, should be financed by the state.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus criticized Ma’s version as writing a blank check for state funding for dependents’ village reconstruction.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that Lo’s proposal would serve those seeking illegal profits.
The verdict of an administrative lawsuit involving Tsu Ren Eighth Village (慈仁八村) in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) said that the village was not considered a dependents’ village and should not be eligible for a rebuilding project, he said.
Lo’s proposed amendment would qualify the village for rebuilding and benefit its residents unfairly, Ker said.
The Economic Democracy Union civic group panned Lo’s proposal, saying it would allow prime real-estate owners to become richer.
Eight communities in Lo’s precinct would meet the requirements, about 11.5 percent of all eligible communities, and see the reconstruction funded by the state, it said.
However, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉), who attended the cross-caucus discussion, said the amendment would only affect the residents of the Tsu Ren Eighth Village.
The union later issued a separate statement saying that Lo’s proposal did not even mention Tsu Ren Eighth Village and should have been clearer.
Lo said that the amendments he proposed would only affect the residents of the Tsu Ren Eighth Village, or about 50 families, and allow them to move into the Wanlong New Community built 15 years ago specifically to house the residents of 27 dependents’ villages.
However, Army Command Headquarters Political Warfare Department head Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) said at the meeting that the amendment should not be passed, as the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the original ruling in 2015 regarding Tsu Ren Eighth Village.
Current regulations should be observed for the sake of legal stability, as well as the fairness and equality of dependents’ village reconstruction projects, Shih added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS