The Cabinet said it would “seek lawful and constitutional remedies” over amendments to three laws passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday.
It issued the statement late on Friday night after the 113-seat legislative body, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers hold a combined majority, passed amendments to the Act Governing the Settlement of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) and the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法) that, respectively, no longer recognize the China Youth Corps (CYC) as a KMT affiliate, extending license holder reassessments and classifying aides’ pay as lawmaker subsidies.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) and the Cabinet plans to take legal and constitutional measures to seek redress as she criticized the legislature for failing to review the central government’s annual budget, but “passed bills that undermine press freedom and violate democratic constitutional principles.”
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
The amendment to the Satellite Broadcasting Act “is clearly tailored to a specific case, with political agendas interfering in independent agencies,” she said.
Regarding the asset act, Lee said that since its enactment in 2016, the act has passed constitutional review by the Judicial Yuan, including the recognition of KMT-affiliated organizations such as the CYC.
The amendments not only allow public assets to continue being seized, but also turn state property into the private holdings of specific political groups, openly defying the principles of free democracy and constitutional order, while hindering the nation’s efforts to implement transitional justice, she said.
As for the amendments to the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan, Lee criticized the passage as rushed, saying that the amendment process bypassed proper democratic procedures and lacked meaningful debate.
The amendments mischaracterize certain expenses as “legislator subsidy costs,” distorting the nature of public assistant salaries, she said, adding that this could create loopholes in the criminal justice system.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS