At a meeting at Provincial Hall, Thammasak Chana, national deputy director-general of the Land Department explained to Governor Maitri Inthusut, “Land Department officials are not – as the media have suggested – indifferent to this problem.”
The problem, he said, was that the Land Department had not received sufficient evidence to warrant cancellation of land papers for land alleged to be in the park, nor any official request to do so.
As an example, he cited three plots in Sakoo subdistrict, totalling about 290 rai. All three appear to be in the park yet the “owners” – Nakorn Wongsithong, Anoma Fangsen and Chan Pongpa – had applied for freehold Chanote papers in 2010.
Mr Thammasak said, “The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Concervation (DNP) objected to these plots receiving Chanote titles because, it said, the Royal Forestry Department had already paid compensation to the SorKor 1 holders when the National Park was established in 1964.
“But we have seen no evidence yet that they did receive compensation.”
Another 20 plots, he said, could not be precisely located. Of these, 14 are cases are already in the hands of the Department of Special Investigation.
These are the sites of the abandoned Phuket Peninsula Resort & Spa, Central & City Development (part of West Sands), land held by Landstate, land held by Suchada Sangsuwan, the Andaman White Beach Resort, Suree Samrit (Malaiwana development), Pavilion Beach Resort, La Colline Project, Layan Beach Resort, Three Dolphins (Trisara), Phuket Arcadia (Pullman Resort), a private home owned by a foreigner, Malaiwana Hills and the Istana development.
“But the fact is that the Land Department is in the process of checking all the plots that are alleged to be in Sirinat National Park.
“We have heard from the National Anti-Corruption Commission that if they were to be sold today, the price for all of them would be about B1 billion.
“If that is the case, then, [if we are requested to] we have to restrain any approvals.
“But we have not received any official request yet. If the Land Department does get such a request, then the plots will be considered [for cancellation] for sure, according to legal procedure.”