Yunlin Magistrate Su Chih-fen backed down Thursday on her threat to stage a demonstration in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei Saturday to pressure the Formosa Plastics Group to offer more generous compensation in a case of pollution in Yunlin County. Citing progress in negotiations with Formosa Plastics, the magistrate said she will continue to help the people living in the vicinity of the company's naphtha cracking plant in Mailiao, Yunlin to push Formosa Plastics to devise a structured compensation system. She urged the company to be more accommodating of the local people's requests or risk being vilified by the whole country. On July 7 and July 25, there were two separate fires broke out at Formosa Plastics' naphtha cracker plant in Yunlin which belched smoke for several days, polluting the air and causing panic among the people who lived nearby. For several days, the residents of the area blocked the highway leading to the plant, demanding compensation. The Formosa Group agreed to pay NT$500 million (US$15.62 million) in damages to the residents and help Yunlin County to plant 2,600 hectares of forest. The people lifted the roadblock, but asked Formosa Plastics to subsidize their electricity bills and medical examination fees. They threatened to block the highway again on Aug. 30 unless the group meets their requests. In order to show her solidarity with the residents, Su had threatened to stage a demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei Saturday during the negotiations. The Formosa Group, with revenues of NT$1.75 trillion in 2009, is Taiwan's largest private business group in terms of total revenue, profit and the number of employees. 