TRADING BARBS:While Su Jia-chyuan sued Chiu Yi for defamation, the lawmaker sued the Pingtung County Government after it said Su’s farmhouse was not illegal
By Chris Wang and Mo Yan-chih / Staff Reporters
The controversy over Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan’s (蘇嘉全) farmhouse is headed to the courts after Su and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) filed lawsuits over the dispute.
On Monday, Su filed a defamation lawsuit against Chiu, who accused Su and his wife, Hung Heng-chu (洪恆珠), of illegal purchase of agricultural land and illegal construction of a farmhouse on the land in Pingtung County.
The KMT legislator yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Pingtung County Government, accusing it of corruption and document forgery after it cleared Su’s purchase and construction of the house.
The county government told a press conference on Monday that the farmhouse did not violate rules governing the use of farmland, which stipulate that housing constructions on a plot of farmland should not exceed 10 percent of the total area.
“We welcome the lawsuit [filed by Chiu] since this controversy has been the subject of discussion for two weeks now and the accuser had changed his accusations almost daily,” Su said yesterday afternoon in Greater Kaohsiung.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said the county government had failed to address whether the remainder of the 0.25-hectare land was used for agricultural purpose.
“If it was not [used for agriculture], then the house should not have been listed as a farmhouse,” Chen said in a plenary session at the legislature.
Hung, who is a civil servant and not a farmer, does not meet the qualification to build a farmhouse according to the law, Council of Agriculture Secretary-General Tai Yu-yen (戴玉燕) said.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) accused the council of becoming a “political tool” in the dispute.
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign office urged Su to face the public examination of his integrity and to clarify the controversy surrounding the farmhouse.
“Su and the DPP did not answer the questions and the responses they gave were made to shift the focus. We urge Su to face the issue with courage and offer a clear explanation,” Ma campaign spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) said.
Meanwhile, Ma campaign office executive director King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) accused DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the DPP of trying to divert public attention from Su’s problem by accusing him of intervening in an alleged personnel reshuffle at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) would take over as representative to the UK, while Representative to Singapore Vanessa Shih (史亞平) would assume Shen’s post.
The ministry has declined to confirm the personnel reshuffle, but the DPP alleges that King, who was a high school classmate of Shih, could have played a role in the reshuffle.
King has called the allegations “groundless” and said the DPP should explain the controversy surrounding Su’s farmhouse before making accusations against him.