By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday urged Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) to keep his promise that tainted oil products would be completely removed from the market beginning today.
“Chiu pledged on Oct. 24 that Nov. 8 would be ‘D-Day,’ with all tainted oil products removed from the market. If he has failed to deliver on that promise, we urge him to step down,” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) told a press conference.
Government officials have to be held accountable for their inability to control the snowballing food safety concerns and address the public’s fear over illegal, mislabeled and tainted products, the spokesperson said.
Wholesalers across the country have become the latest victims as they had to unconditionally accept returned merchandise and refund consumers without guaranteed payment from upstream manufacturers, Lin said.
“It’s imperative to boost consumer confidence with immediate and effective measures,” Lin said.
In other news, the DPP said the party does not encourage its supporters to attend the planned shoe-throwing protest, organized by various groups, at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) congress in Greater Taichung on Sunday.
“The DPP does not encourage its supporters to attend the event, nor would the party help mobilize protesters for this activity,” Lin said.
Protesters plan to throw the thousands of shoes they said they have collected at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) outside the venue of the party congress to express their anger at the president.