Not so. Now the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has picked up the torch.
Pol Lt Col Prawut Wongseenil of the DSI revealed yesterday (February 17) in Bangkok that the DSI will use the revised Anti-Money-Laundering Law, which came into effect on February 2, to suppress businesses encroaching on the park.
Col Prawut said that the DSI had been asked by the DNP to check businesses that are suspected to be encroaching or holding illegal land papers for parts of the 60,000-rai park.
“The DNP presented the issue of encroachment in a meeting yesterday at which the Anti-Money-Laundering Office (AMLO) was also present,” he told The Phuket News
Three thousand rai of the park has already been issued with land papers, he said. Fourteen hotels and property developments have been built or are in the process of being built in areas believed to be in the park, and there have been applications from business people for land deeds for another 400 plots of land believed to be in the park.
“We have to find out more about who was really involved in the issue of illegal land papers because these papers went through many hands in the past.
“We have to be fair to the current owners of the land papers who were, in effect, cheated,” he said.
He explained that the law (which was revised after the international Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering placed Thailand on its black list) came into force only at the beginning of this month.
However, it can be applied retroactively against people or businesses already found to have encroached on a national park. Civil suits may also be brought against offenders.
He added that the law also applies to other land regarded as natural resources that cannot be used for personal benefit, such as mangrove forests or forest reserves belonging to the Royal Forest Department.
The Bangkok Post reported yesterday (February 17) that the DSI would also follow up on cases of illegal encroachment in various parts of Phuket that were initially uncovered by Col Dutsadee Arayawut and his investigators from the Public Anti-Corruption Commission.
That investigation, too, has lain fallow since Col Dutsadee was transferred to a new job chasing narcotics.
The Post quoted Pol Lt Col Somboon Sarasit, chief of the DSI’s Bureau of Special Crime 3, as saying that it is clear that rights documents for at least nine land plots in a forest reserve and a national park in Kathu district of Phuket were issued illegally.
These include large pieces of land annexed by two former vice-governors of Phuket and a retired permanent secretary of the Ministry of Interior.
The land involved, if it were sold, would fetch billions of baht.