Phuket park chief moves to block land papers for 'encroacher'

[webfact]

Phuket park chief moves to block land papers for 'encroacher'
Anthika Muangrod


Park chief Kitipat Tharapiban: Crooked officials face criminal charges.

PHUKET: -- The head of Sirinart National Park has filed papers to block the pending issue of three titles covering 256 rai of land which, he says, is in the park.

The three pieces of land cover forest along the edge of the cape between Nai Yang Beach of protected park land in Nai Yang along Phuket’s northwest coast.

The coastline contains three untouched beaches that are accessible only from the sea or by battling through old-growth jungle.

Park chief Kitipat Tharapiban, who took office last month, told The Phuket News yesterday (July 2) that these latest filings are part of a larger and very complex investigation into the legality of land titles covering some 3,000 rai of land in the park.

He showed The Phuket News an aerial photo of the park, with areas believed to be illegal marked in blue, areas under investigation marked in yellow and areas marked in pink that have already been reported to the police.

The colours form a fretwork of shapes all around the edges of the park, nibbling away at its boundaries.

“We are filing our opposition to the [application for titles on] the three plots, complete with evidence, to the Land Department and the Governor for consideration. We believe the SorKor 1 [occupation rights paper on which the application for upgrade to full Chanote ownership is based] is unlawful, and the applicant has no right to own the land, which is inside the national park.”

“According to the applicable law, the land had to have been in use [for agriculture] before 1954. The people making claim to the land said that it has been in use since 1937.

“However, we checked aerial pictures from 1950 to 1967, and the land was still virgin forest then. People started to use the land only after the establishment of the park [in 1967]. They have no rights; it’s encroachment.

“If they want to claim they were there [before 1954], they must prove it.”

Mr Kitipat told The Phuket News: “I want to let all those people who are thinking of buying land close to the park know that we have people who can check, for free, whether the land is legitimate or not. This will prevent people from being cheated and wasting their money.”

He said that he had met a Thai buyer who was thinking of making a down payment of B300 million for 30 rai of land close to Nai Yang. He told Mr Kitipat that an official in the Royal Forestry Department had assured him the title on the land was legitimate.

Mr Kitipat told him it was absolutely not. The buyer bailed out of the deal and handed all the documentation to Mr Kitipat, who now has that piece of land on his list as a priority for investigation.

Mr Kitipat said he will also be working with the Land Department to check the history behind a number of land deeds. He will also look into the people who were involved in issuing questionable deeds.

“If officials were or are in the wrong, they will be charged with dereliction of duty as defined in [Thai Criminal Code 1956] Section 157, or conspiring with others to certify falsified or invalid documents or information as covered in Section 162.

“As for people who present false information to government officials, they will be charged under Section 137. These cases will be handled soon by the Department of Special Investigation.”

While the chief declined to name officials being targeted, he did name some individuals and companies that are now in the legal system. These include the Phuket Peninsula Spa & Resort, Central and City Development, Land State Co, Suchada Sangsuwan, Andaman White Beach, Malaiwana Naithon, Imperial Adamas, La Colline, Layan Phuket, and Three Dolphins.

“We have already ordered them to drop their claims to land ownership. The cases have been sent to the DSI, who will arrive on Friday (July 4) to follow up.

“There is going to be an investigation and there will be court battles. If they [the targeted individuals and companies] lose, we will cancel their rights [land titles] and everything on the land must be returned to the original condition.”

The Director General of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation will also come to Phuket to investigate the protected forests, on July 8.

Mr Kitipat added that more encroachment accusations will surface in the coming days.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-park-chief-moves-to-block-land-papers-for-%E2%80%98encroacher%E2%80%99-47184.php


-- Phuket News 2014-07-03

[Tatsujin]

More great news . . . and I hope that this trend continues far into the future with officials being charged for turning a blind eye to or conspiring with people to use land they are not entitled to, along with a whole host of other offences.

Still love this coup so far.

[RigPig]

This is definitely a step in the right direction, especially if they prosecute the people involved with granting the land rights

[simon43]

These include the Phuket Peninsula Spa & Resort, Central and City Development, Land State Co, Suchada Sangsuwan, Andaman White Beach, Malaiwana Naithon, Imperial Adamas, La Colline, Layan Phuket, and Three Dolphins

Wow, there are some long-established hotels in that list, (but whose legal claim to build in that location has always seemed dubious, to say the least).

AFAIK, Phuket Peninsula is the owner of the abandoned hotel at the southern end of NY beach - I recall the original adverts at the airport selling apartments before construction started. Then the business partners fell out, Hyatt Regency got involved, more disagreements etc, and the hotel construction was never completed.

Andaman White Beach is Andaman White Beach Hotel, south of Naithon Beach.

Malaiwana Naithon are luxury villas on/near Naithon Beach.

La Colline is the private villa above Layan Beach, owned by a French guy and previously mentioned in news reports.

Does anyone know which properties are owned by the other companies mentioned?

It would be interesting to know the legal status of a certain 5-star hotel on NY Beach (4 letters) that was built right inside the national park..

Imperial Adamas is the low-rise hotel at the southern end of NY beach, used to be called The Aramas

[EBlair48]

^ La Colline is not the big landed villa on the coast owned by the Frenchman whose name is I believe, Mr Gaultier [sic?]. It is a multi villa development owned by an American and located east of the coastal road 4018, on the allegedly illegal upper Layan Soi 7 spur ( allegedly built by Cheng Telay Or Bor Tor. When will that office be raided?)

Prior reports had it apparently only a small parts of it are on Park land as it sits on the south side of the illegal road.

Also on that upper spur and within the Reserved boundary is a World worker's camp that glaringly carved out about one rai of Forest Preserve. I sent pics to the Environment Protection Office about three months ago. It is still operating. ABout 200 meters up the hill is an abandoned fairly new Park Ranger house, left unlocked and appears to have been abandoned in a hurry ( about 4 months ago ) Would make a nice squat.

Land and State sold out to Avadina or ....something Hills who spend 18 hours a day constructing what looks like will be a skyscraper. That site has cleared dozen of rai and are still doing so.

WHEN WILL CHERNG- TELAY PERMITTING OFFICE BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE ?? Investigate that office who issue permits to build, look at that Chief's bank account-or maybe way too big a fish to fry compared to a few local yokel taxi thugs?

Edited July 3, 2014 by EBlair48

[gerry123]

and Three Dolphins.????? not sure how they will deal with them

[oldsailor35]

Just cannot wait for someone to move on to Koh Samui and start having a good look at enroachments here.

[brianP]

Paper trails and aerial photographs, many ways to catch these parasites who think they are entitled.

[eezergood]

Does anyone know what happened in the case for the Pullman????

[cooked]

Just cannot wait for someone to move on to Koh Samui and start having a good look at enroachments here.

Koh Samet? Koh Chang? And why not visit the few unspoiled places that are left and make sure they stay that way?

[EBlair48]

Just an amendment to prior post above- Land and State Co., Inc. is still listed on the Avadina Hills sales center sign, ( located a couple of hundred meters south from the building site, on route 4018 ) so I was wrong the property had been sold.

Why are they still building? There's also a new site that appears to be related, or using the same construction company at least, that is putting in foundations just behind the beach on the east side of the river, about 10 rai or so cleared there.

This is all jurisdiction of the Cherng- Telay permitting office. I've had my own interesting experience with this office that libel laws prevent me from disclosing here. I think I can safely say that I could offer evidence on a prosecutor's case.