RESIGNED:The Cabinet responded by saying that Lwo Shih-hsiung had quit last week. Lwo said he will hold a press conference today to explain his side
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused Lwo Shih-hsiung (羅世雄), chief executive of the Executive Yuan’s Southern Taiwan Joint Service Center, of illegal land use, tax evasion and false declaration of assets.
In a surprise twist, however, the Executive Yuan said that Lwo had resigned from his post last week.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said a building built on agricultural land in Guanmiao Township (關廟) registered under the name of Lwo’s wife, Lu Chi-hsiu (呂綺修), was yesterday declared illegal by the Greater Tainan Government.
The allegation was seen as a DPP “counter attack” against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after KMT Legislator Chiu Yi’s (邱毅) series of attacks against DPP vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and his family. Chiu had accused Su of illegally constructing a farmhouse and made other allegations of misconduct in the past month.
Su announced on Tuesday that he would donate his farmland and the farmhouse on which it stands to a township office to end months of controversy over the assets.
Lin said Lu had neither applied for a construction license or an occupancy license for the 500 ping (1,653m2) structure nor declared rental income from leasing out the building on Lwo’s annual assets declaration, a requirement for all government officials.
“Now that Su has donated his farmhouse, which has been declared legal, shouldn’t Lo’s illegal structure be demolished immediately?” he asked.
He added that Lwo, a public servant and a KMT legislative candidate in Greater Kaohsiung, should resign from his post.
The DPP has in the past week also disclosed several suspected cases of illegal land use and construction against KMT members, including Greater Kaohsiung Council Speaker Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源), KMT Legislator Nancy Chao (趙麗雲) and presidential adviser Lin Yuan-lang (林源朗).
In response, the Executive Yuan yesterday said Lwo had resigned on Tuesday last week.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) approved Lwo’s resignation on Thursday last week, it said, adding that it was up to Lwo to explain the matter himself.
In a statement yesterday, Lwo dismissed the allegations as a “campaign tactic and said he would explain why he resigned at a press conference today.
Lu, meanwhile, said Lwo “had nothing to do with the plot of land,” which she said she has owned since she was 21 — long before she married Lwo when she was 32.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan