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zubber

Monday, November 9, 2009

ttp://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=7983

WICHIT, PHUKET: Problems continue at the troubled Panason City housing project, with workmen this morning allegedly trying to bury seven houses under mounds of earth using three excavators, according to residents of nearby Ketkaew village.

Four of the houses were still occupied, 50-year-old local woman Yaowaluck Promsiri said.

The incident caused outrage among local residents, 30 of whom are understood to have gone to Phuket Provincial Hall today to demand an audience with Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop.

The development has been the subject of numerous protests over the past year, with residents claiming the developers are trying to drive them out of their homes against their consent.

Two weeks ago a crowd of about 60 protesters gathered at Phuket Provincial Hall to demand that the governor step in to resolve the conflict.

For our previous report, click here.

The project owners claim a number of families are living on the 78-rai plot without title deeds and are thus trespassing on company land.

Mrs Yaowaluck, who has lived in a house in Ketkaew village with her husband and daughter for over 10 years, said she left her house this morning on a salaeng (motorcycle with illegal sidecar) to find her path blocked by a mound of dirt.

The dirt, which had been previously piled up elsewhere, was now covering seven local residents’ homes.

Mrs Yaowaluck said residents of Ketkaew village didn’t have any title deeds, but had residency contracts with the company that originally sold them the houses.

She claimed the Panason City project owners had agreed not to go ahead with any more work on the project until a scheduled meeting with local residents was held on November 30.

“Until then they shouldn’t do anything,” she said. – Atchaa Khamlo

__________________
i'd rather have a phlebotomy than a full frontal lobotomy

Sdigit

Sounds like standard practice for many developers to me, it's disgraceful but when the shouting is done, the residents will be gone.

StrontiumDog

This is Thailand, money is the only mitigating factor. If you're poor, then you'll always lose here.

Chairman Mao

Not very thai of them is it...

StrontiumDog

Yeah, but I often wonder what that means....

Chairman Mao

standard procedure should be followed.

They're poor little people, richer bigger people are telling them to fok off.

Should be foking off with a deep wai and backwards crawl.

zubber

Troubled Residents, Phanason Meet to Agree Deal

By Chutima Sidasathian
Monday, November 9, 2009
Phuketwan UPDATE

PROTESTERS slept at Provincial Hall in Phuket City overnight and on Tuesday men with a Phanason management representative who agreed to reopen the road to houses on the estate, and said there would be no flooding at homes. In return, the names of the people in the dwellings are to be supplied so settlement terms can be negotiated.


HUGE PILES of earth have been pushed across roads, preventing residents from entering or leaving part of an estate in Phuket City where the developers are in dispute with residents.

A large group of residents were on their way this afternoon to Provincial Hall, where they planned to protest and seek the help of the Governor, Wichai Praisa-ngob.

The governor had visited the site as a result of a previous protest and the timetable for a mediation session had been set.

Today bulldozers pushed the earth into place at Ket Kaew Villas in Vichit on a site that was to be the subject of talks on November 30.

The developers, Phanason, said the earthen barriers had been shifted into place today because the land belongs to them.

Some residents claim to have ownership documents going back before Phanason bought the estate. Others admit they are illegal residents, but many have lived on the estate for years.

One woman said today she farewelled her daughter for university today, on a motorcycle, but she will not be able to return to their home this evening.

Yaowalat Promsiri, 50, said she, her husband and her daughter had been living on the estate for 17 years.

The earth had been pushed close to her home today and the road was no longer accessible, she said.

''We can move but we need time to find a new place to stay,'' she said today.

Khun Yaowalat said that court action was already in the system and a mediation session was scheduled for later this month.

One family had accepted 13,000 baht to move out, she said. But she added that she did not think that was enough. Of the five houses in the row, residents remained in four, she said.

Khun Yaowalat had parked her own motorcycle in front of the earth movers.

''I no longer feel safe here at home during the day.'' she said. ''They may come back and push the dirt even closer. And I do not know how my daughter will make her way home this evening.''

phuketwan

BobR

I do not say this lightly or flippantly, but the story would have been much better if someone in one of these houses had a gun and knew how to use it. Anyone who would bury an occupied house does not deserve to live.

Thungsongsausage

What and nobody saw loads of dump trucks full of soil before they dumped it around their house?

Chairman Mao

Thais are a beautiful, caring people.

panama hat

. . . you forgot 'gentle'.

Whiteshiva

Sorry, mate - Just corrected your spelling mistake.....

Whiteshiva

Up to the age of ten, perhaps......

zubber

Saturday, November 14, 2009

PHUKET CITY: The tense standoff at the Panason City construction site heated up this morning when landless villagers set fires to prevent backhoes from covering their modest homes with dirt and warning gunshots were fired by workers.

The fires were set at about 10am today and warning shots were fired into the air by backhoe operators around noon, one of the protesters told the Gazette by phone.

The protesters have blocked the entrance to the village since November 10 in a protest that sees little hope of ending any time soon.

Protest leader Kasinee 'Ee' Sae-en, said that with no other options left the villagers plan to take their protest right to the top with a trip to Government House in Bangkok.

“We will try to contact the Prime Minister or other officials there, because we haven’t had any luck with local officials. The Mayor of Wichit has already given formal permission for the company to fill in the land, so we have to do something,” she said.

The Gazatte tried to contact the mayor of Wichit municipality, but was unable to get a reply.

Many of the villagers have been living in the area for 10 years.

The villagers lack title deeds, but say they had signed deals with the previous owner of the land to live there before Bangkok-based Panason group acquired the land, 78 rai next to Soi Thep Anusorn off Chao Fa East Rd in Wichit.

For the previous report click here Phuket: Phuket land protest heats up – Atchaa Khamlo

zubber

if this was in BKK the entire area would mysteriously catch fire late one night ...

dirtydog

Rainy season and that house is going to be washed away, end of complaints

the dogcatcher

I keep saying "money number one" and you lot keep saying NO, my wife luvs me.
I DESPAIR! Developers do that to me, I blow their fucking heads off with my AK.
Bought it for Laosy for her birthday. Chinese, but works ok.

Sdigit

These homes are certainly doomed, but to be fair they were from the start of all this.
Mr and Mrs Somchai and all the little Somchais had better get the fuck out before they all get burried under a sea of mud.
I dont envy the poor fuckers.
Now fuck off Somchai, kaa

Muadib

They're squatters FFS... If the police had any backbone, they would have evicted these people to begin with and not put the owners / contractors in this position...

baldrick

yes - forget about somchai firing his weapon indiscriminately and local land planners taking money to approve another fcuking hotel/condo being build to discraceful standards.