2024-03-24 22:00:00
Gong Wenjun, the mayor of Yuli Town who has won the Shennong Award, was sentenced to suspension by the Hualien District Court for providing pig heads and disabled pigs to tribal elders during the election. (Photo / Newspaper photo)
Yuli Town, Hualien County, in the middle section of the East Longitudinal Valley, is a famous hometown of rice, vegetables and fruits in eastern Taiwan. The green shade on both sides of County Road 193, the blue sky and red flowers in the blooming season of Phoenix flowers, accompanied by the gentle south wind on the roadside The farmland scenery is a journey to the secret realm of Yuli Town, but the tranquility of this area seems to have been ruffled by the “pig head war” triggered by the 2022 mayoral election. Gong Wenjun, the former mayor of the town who runs a pig breeding farm, is an expert in raising pigs and has won the “Shennong Award” twice. He failed to be re-elected in the last mayor election. This time he made a comeback and was re-elected as mayor. However, due to the gift of pig heads and injuries during the election, The mutilated pig incident was prosecuted by the prosecutor for invalidation of the election and election bribery. Not only was Gong Wenjun unable to secure his position as mayor, but he may also face jail time!
Yuli Town, Hualien County, has beautiful mountains and rivers and is unpolluted. It is known as the hometown of good rice, vegetables and fruits in Taiwan. However, the election of the town mayor caused a stir. (Photo / Newspaper photo)
62-year-old Gong Wenjun has served as a Hualien County Councilor, Yuli Mayor, and Director-General of the Farmers’ Association. He is a businessman and an official. It seems that everything is going smoothly for him. Unexpectedly, he failed to run for re-election as mayor in 2018, so he made a comeback in the 2022 nine-in-one election. , hoping to regain the throne of the mayor. Although he was successfully elected, during the election campaign in May and June 2022, he presented 2 pig heads and a 60 to 70 kilogram pig with an injured foot to the tribal elders through the former mayor Lin Chengguo. The Hualien District Prosecutor’s Office found him guilty of election bribery. Not only was he sentenced to five years in prison by the Hualien District Court’s Criminal Court in the first instance, but his election was invalidated by the Hualien District Court’s Civil Court, and his hard-won mayor’s seat was suspended.
Gong Wenjun once ran for mayor of Yuli and failed to be re-elected. He made a comeback and was successfully elected, but was involved in suspicions of bribery. (Photo / Newspaper photo)
In this regard, Gong Wenjun loudly cried out for injustice. He said that he had been raising pigs for 40 years. In order to avoid waste, for 16 years, he would only give away disabled pigs with injured feet, underweight, etc. that have no economic value for sale to people in need. This is not an election. It was only given during the period, but now it has become a vote-buying item. He said that in the past, pig heads and lower jaws were used to make tooth molds, which were also leftovers after experiments. Pigs with injured feet had to be eliminated and destroyed because they were underweight and suspected of bacterial infection. They were all priceless materials. If no one wants these discarded pigs, According to regulations such as the Food Safety Act, industrial waste must be disposed of for a fee, so he has been asking people from all walks of life for their needs for many years, and he is willing to provide it for free.
Gong Wenjun emphasized that those who receive pig heads and disabled pigs do not receive them for free. Because those who are willing to accept the pig have to drive to the pig farm by themselves, and a disabled pig weighing tens of kilograms cannot be moved by one person, so it requires the assistance of relatives and friends. For the pig farm, having someone willing to transport it will reduce the burden on the owner, because there is no need to spend extra money to deal with it, and many witnesses have appeared in court to testify that he has been doing this for many years. The prosecutor’s surveillance results can also prove that he has no intention of bribery. .
However, prosecutors and the court of first instance believed that pig heads and disabled pigs still have value in the market. In fact, pig heads are “normally priced by weight when wholesaled”, and disabled pigs are still edible and can be sold in the market. For sale. Although pig heads and disabled pigs may be of no use to Gong Wenjun, in terms of comprehensive social values, if a candidate presents edible pig heads or pigs, compared with candidates who do not present anything, it may indeed have an impact. People’s voting tendency.
The first-instance judge also pointed out that the bribes Gong Wenjun delivered were to tribal elders and had a certain influence on tribal voters. This was to take advantage of the simple nature of tribal voters in his hometown and their tendency to feel grateful, and to donate pig heads, pigs with injured feet, etc. Gong Wenjun was elected as the mayor of Yuli Town by pretending to be a briber. If he is not severely punished, it will be impossible to stop the trend of vote bribery.
However, after the case was appealed to the second instance, the civil lawsuit for invalid election was reversed, and the Hualien High Court ruled that Gong Wenjun’s election was valid and confirmed. The judge accepted Gong Wenjun’s argument and believed that he had been engaged in pig farming for many years. The pigs and pig heads sent this time were raised by himself and most of them were disabled. They had no value to the general market and the public. They had to have a certain value for election bribery. In addition, he often gave similar pork to tribal people and disadvantaged people in the past, so he believed that this behavior was not considered buying votes.
Due to the opinions of the Civil Court of the Hualien High Branch of the second trial, contrary to the civil and criminal courts of the first trial, seeing that the oral arguments in the Criminal Court of the second trial will be held on April 16, 2024, both the prosecution and the defense must work hard and prepare hard, hoping to win the “Pig Head” At the critical moment of the decisive battle in the “war”, you can convince the judge to accept your side’s opinion. In the end, “who will win”, the outcome is really unpredictable!
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