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Defense Ministry mulls rejecting post-disaster cleanup requests

ROC Central News Agency

2012/06/03 20:37:59

Taipei, June 3 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense said Sunday it will consider turning down future requests by local governments to help with post-disaster relief missions such as cleanup jobs to lower expenses and stick to the military's defense duties.

Deputy Defense Minister Chao Shih-chang said the ministry has been obliged to help with emergency rescue efforts since disaster prevention became one of the military's main duties.

But he hoped that local governments could take care of some post-disaster missions, such as cleaning up, on their own by hiring extra hands.

Chao was responding to the concerns of Kuomintang Legislator Chen Chen-hsiang, a former army commander-in-chief, that the military was focusing too much on post-disaster missions rather than defense duties, a situation he said was like "putting the cart before the horse."

The ministry said a week ago that local governments around Taiwan owed it a total of NT$1.31 billion (US$44.3 million) for disaster rescue and relief missions over the past two years.

The military has requested local governments to reimburse those expenses, but the governments in question have replied that they are also facing financial difficulties, the ministry said.

To get the money back, the ministry said it will ask the National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission to mediate the issue with the local government departments concerned.

(By Rogge Chen and Jamie Wang)
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