Premier Cho declines to countersign 3 legal revisions

Taipei, March 5 (CNA) The Cabinet said Thursday that Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) will not countersign three legal amendments passed this year by the opposition-controlled Legislature, citing what he claimed were flaws in their constitutionality.

The amendments, passed with the support of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP), were made in January to the Act Governing the Settlement of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations, the Satellite Broadcasting Act, and the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan.

Based on the Cabinet's current interpretation, Cho's refusal to countersign the laws effectively means the revisions will not be enacted.

The revision to the Act Governing the Settlement of Ill-gotten Properties seeks to reverse a 2022 designation of the China Youth Corps as a KMT-affiliate during Taiwan's authoritarian era, contravening a 2023 constitutional interpretation, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said in a statement on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the amendment to the Satellite Broadcasting Act allows channels to continue broadcasting in their original slots during administrative lawsuits and requires authorities to provide remedies if a channel has been reassigned.

The amendment is "case specific" and therefore represents an "unreasonable differential treatment" that is "unfair" for other TV news channels, Lee said.

The changes have been dubbed the "CTi TV clause" by critics who say they could pave the way for CTi News to regain its license after it was taken off the air in December 2020, when its license was not renewed by the National Communications Commission (NCC).

The broadcasting regulator rejected CTi News' license renewal application, citing "repeated rule violations" and "a failure of its internal discipline and control mechanisms."

CTi TV, a company under the Want Want Group, later entered into an administrative lawsuit with the NCC. The proceedings are still ongoing.

Meanwhile, the amendment to the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan, reclassified public funds previously earmarked as salary payments to lawmakers' aides as "subsidies" to lawmakers, and set the amount at five times a lawmaker's annual remuneration.

The amendment would create a loophole that could encourage lawmakers to pocket their aides' salaries, Lee said.

It would also increase the financial burden on the central government without identifying funding to offset the expected rise in expenditure, Lee said, claiming this was unconstitutional.

Cho's decision drew strong criticism from the KMT, which in a statement accused the premier of trampling on the separation of powers principle and usurping the power of the courts to determine whether a law is constitutional.

In its statement, the TPP caucus targeted President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), who it said bears the ultimate responsibility for his administration's contempt for the law.

This is not the first time Cho has declined to countersign a bill passed by the Legislature over what he claims to be constitutional concerns.

In December, Cho declined to sign a legal amendment pushed through by the opposition parties that would increase the share of tax revenues allocated for local governments.

That was the first time a Premier had ever refused to countersign a law passed by the Legislature in the history of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Last month, he also declined to countersign an opposition-backed amendment that directed the relocation of 50 households in a veteran village in Taipei to a defense ministry housing project.

There is also an instance where, although Cho and Lai signed bills into law, the government still refused to implement them.

The Cabinet has failed to earmark funds for pension increases for police officers and firefighters, as well as salary raises for active-duty military personnel, as required by legislation passed by the Legislature in the central government's 2026 general budget proposal, even though the legislation had been promulgated.