Government branch heads agree to establish communications platform

Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) The heads of Taiwan's five government branches on Monday reached a consensus in three areas, including the establishment of a communications platform to resolve disagreements, after attending a meeting led by President Lai Ching-te (賴清德).

Speaking after the meeting, Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said the five branch heads agreed to set up a platform to improve communications and cooperation to enable them to advance public policies and reinforce Taiwan's democracy and freedom.

They also agreed that the five branches of government -- the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan, the Judicial Yuan, the Examination Yuan and the Control Yuan -- all have their own duties and checks and balances, but they still need to respect each other.

The five branch heads also believed that competition among political parties is allowed but that the nation cannot be sacrificed by their competition as Taiwan is faced with a fast-changing world.

They felt that the five branches needed to unite, in particular on national defense and diplomatic issues by prioritizing national security, Pan said.

The meeting of the five government branch heads was called by Lai to discuss issues related to Taiwan and the severe political and economic challenges it faced at home and abroad.

More specifically, it was focused on the stand-off between Lai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government and the Legislative Yuan, in which the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) have teamed up to pass measures strongly opposed by the DPP.

Most recently, the two sides have battled over the central government's 2025 budget. The KMT and TPP have cut or froze some of the DPP's budget request, but still allowed the overall budget to grow by about 3 percent compared to 2024.

The DPP has argued, however, that the cuts would make it hard for it to carry out its policies.

After the meeting, Pan said national security, economic development, and caring for the people cannot be compromised and represent the responsibilities and goals that the ruling and opposition parties should pursue together in the future.

Both the ruling and opposition parties should put people in the country first, and therefore the five branches should work together to boost the local economy and strengthen industrial development to protect the welfare of the people, he said.

How those principles will lead to conciliation between the different sides was unclear, however, given that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is the only head of the five branches aligned with the opposition, and his post does not involve policy-making in the lawmaking body.

The confrontation in the Legislative Yuan has led to a massive campaign initiated by DPP legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) to recall KMT lawmakers to undermine the opposition's legislative majority, and the KMT decided to retaliate.

After the meeting, Han hoped Lai will urge the ruling and opposition camps to stop their recall campaigns.

He also called on the Cabinet not to ask the Legislative Yuan to vote a second time on the general budget plan once it is submitted to the government, but said the Legislative Yuan was willing to hold cross-party negotiations to find a solution to parts of the budget the Executive Yuan has claimed it would have trouble implementing.

The Legislative Yuan is currently doing its final calculations of the budget plan before sending it to the Executive Yuan. Under the Constitution, the Cabinet has the right to ask the Legislative Yuan to vote again on a bill it deems difficult to implement.

Han said he spoke to Lai, who also serves as the chairman of the DPP, about the massive campaign to recall lawmakers in both ruling and opposition camps, saying a move to mobilize such a campaign out of hatred was not good for society.

In response, Xavier Chang (張惇涵), Pan's deputy, cited Lai as saying the president has asked Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Han to hold negotiations to resolve the budget issue.

According to Chang, Lai quoted Buddhist Scripture as saying: "Bodhisattvas fear causes, while sentient beings fear effects," referring to an understanding that every cause will have a consequence, and that Bodhisattvas strive to avoid creating evil causes while generating those that are good.

He said Lai also asked the Executive Yuan and Legislative Yuan to communicate with each other more.

The heads of the five branches are currently Premier Cho, Legislative Speaker Han, Acting Judicial Yuan President Shieh Ming-yan (謝銘洋), Control Yuan President Chen Chu (陳菊), and Examination Yuan President Chou Hung-hsien (周弘憲).