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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ko dismisses Farglory’s explanatory ad
PUBLIC PITCH: Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said he has nothing to say if the Taipei Dome developer wants to court the public with ads it published in Chinese-language papers
By Kuo Chia-an and Liang Pei-chi / Staff reporters
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） and Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiung （趙藤雄） continued to exchange barbs after contract negotiations between the Taipei City Government and Farglory fell apart.
Farglory yesterday emulated what Hon Hai Group had done weeks ago — taking out a half-page ad on the front pages of major Chinese-language newspapers nationwide — in which it provided a history of the Taipei Dome project, while emphasizing that the move was not meant to challenge the mayor.
The ads were published in the form of an oral statement by Chao, in which the chairman said that the corporation began construction at the invitation of architect Ricky Liu （劉培森） — whose architectural firm pulled out of the project in 2009 and accused the corporation last week of cutting the project’s operational budget to the extent of raising safety concerns — but that the Taipei Dome, while having been Farglory’s ideal project, has become “stigmatized.”
“This is emotionally unbearable for Farglory, so the corporation has to restore all the facts and the truth,” Chao said in the ad.
Chao said the corporation has not violated the contract and he has been “excruciatingly agonized over the stigmatization.”
He asked readers to criticize “only after the completion of the Taipei Dome,” as Farglory “would definitely not let the public down.”
Ko dismissed the ad, saying: “If Farglory wants to make clarifications to me, it could simply give me an electronic file.”
He added that he had nothing to say if the corporation’s aim was to win public support.
Farglory said that financial losses could be seen as tantamount to royalty fees — which had not been required in the contract by the municipal government for 50 years.
In response, Ko used a Taiwanese proverb: “No good words come from people lashing out at each other.”
“I am just thinking that if [Chao] feels that he has been undeservedly wronged and has lost a lot of money because of the project, he could simply give it up and let somebody else take it over,” Ko said.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi （鄧家基） said both royalty fees and operating fees are to be negotiated in the future.
The surplus of the project’s accessory commercial facilities, for example, had been agreed not to be used to recoup operational losses, and the clause would have to be amended to safeguard the contract’s fairness, Teng said.
The municipal government will also determine the accountability of Farglory’s request to extend the construction period by 350 days, Teng added.
Ko said he hoped that the arena, after its completion, could be used as expected and would have little impact on the surrounding traffic and environment.
Meanwhile, the corporation’s ad came under fire from a city councilor and activist group the Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union.
Taipei City Councilor Kao Chia-yu （高嘉瑜） of the Democratic Progressive Party said that if Farglory was sincere, it should have followed the municipal government’s rules and engaged in talks about the contract.
Kao added that the ad has not clarified all the questions that the public has raised about the unreasonableness of the original contract.
Kao also chided the corporation for “playing naive while having all the goodies to itself.”
Union policy group director Yu Yi （游藝） said Chao was talking nonsense in the ad when he blamed the delay caused before Farglory received the construction permit on groups aiming to protect trees.
Yu said activists started their actions only after Farglory received the permit.
Yu was also not impressed by Chao stressing that the number of trees would increase two-and-a-half-fold after the existing trees were removed.
The coconut trees that Farglory plans to plant are no comparison for the existing older trees, Yu said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
