It took a big kick to wake up Phuket

It took a big kick to wake up Phuket

It seems the Land Department and its branch office in Phuket have only just woken up to the decades-old land encroachment problem, especially the prime land in Sirinart National Park and forest reserves.

We can reasonably wonder whether these same land officials, particularly those in Phuket, would ever have taken any action to address the problem if there had not been an order from the National Council for Peace and Order for all agencies - the Royal Forest Department, the Ministry of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), and the Land Department - to tackle the problem.

Soldiers remove buildings encroaching on  Sirinat National Park in July, 2014.

The three agencies have been jointly working to verify the legality and authenticity of land ownership documents issued to 14 resort and real estate developers by the Phuket land office.

Land deputy director-general Thammasak Chana said he expected the verification process would be completed in 60 days and, if not, it could be extended by another two months.

If the panel in charge of the verification rules that any of the land ownership documents are illegal, the "owner" can petition against the ruling within 30 days.

The cooperative atmosphere, or rather the semblance of cooperation, between the three agencies is a far cry from the situation just before the May 22 coup, when cooperation was minimal at best and nonexistent at worst.

Just two years ago, then national parks chief Damrong Pidet led a high-profile campaign to reclaim the encroached land in Sirinart National Park and forest reserves from the 14 resort and real estate developers.

Complaints were filed with the Tha Chatchai police in Thalang district against some of the alleged encroachers, but Mr Damrong’s solo campaign, which was widely publicised, ended up in a whimper without any action being taken against the alleged violators. Which was not at all surprising. The Yingluck government of the time did not openly give any support to Mr Damrong’s solo crusade.

There seems to be a conflict, or mutual mistrust, between the Land Department on one side and the Department of National Parks (DNP) and the Royal Forest Department on the other side.

At a recent meeting of relevant agencies held in Phuket to discuss the land encroachment problem, a Phuket land official, Sitthichai Promchart, explained that the Phuket land office had to issue land certificates such as sor kor 1, nor sor 3, or title deeds, to the land's occupants because both the DNP and Royal Forest Department did not raise any objection after being notified of the planned issuance of the certificates.

Also, he claimed that his office and officials involved might have been charged with abuse of authority in accordance with Article 157 of the Criminal Code if they did not issue the documents as requested.

There are three applications to upgrade the sor kor 1 land certificates into title deeds pending the consideration of the Phuket land office. Phuket land officials said the three applicants had been applying for title deeds for about a decade and their requests had been rejected by the DNP and Royal Forest Department as each of them had claimed to own 80-110 rai of land.

The question is, how could they have been be issued with sor kor 1 documents in the first place without any suspicion about how each of them could have legally acquired such a large block of land.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission has recently set up a panel to look into suspected involvement of officials in the land encroachment problem. The probe will target four groups of officials -- the Interior Ministry, Phuket land officials, officials of the DNP and Royal Forest Department and local officials such as kamnan and village heads.

According to the DNP, a total of 2,743 rai of land in Sirinart National Park and forest reserves have been encroached on and much of it has been developed into resorts - luxury villas and condominiums.

One may wonder how that could be possible without the connivance of officials of the relevant agencies. This may explain why many land officials prefer to be based in Phuket.

The DNP wants to take back all the encroached land. What does it plan to do with the five-star resorts and villas? To tear all of them down and restore the land to its natural state?

Phuket is a haven for the super-rich of all nationalities, but land which is legal and can be developed is scarce and very expensive. Hence the exploitation of national parks and forest reserves - it's much cheaper if you can smooth the way.

Spare the park and the well-preserved forest reserves, let us have a debate on how to make use of the remaining denuded forest reserves – whether they should be developed to bring in revenue for Phuket, or reforested to restore the land to its natural state.

Veera Prateepchaikul

Former Editor

Former Bangkok Post Editor, political commentator and a regular columnist at Post Publishing.

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