Weerachai warned celebrities to check the details of the goods, especially their legality, before reviewing or endorsing them.

His comments came after police on Sunday searched a factory in Pathum Thani province that produced items for Magic Skin Co Ltd, which has been accused of unauthorised use of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hallmarks and producing substandard products.

The search followed complaints from several consumers, which also led to the arrests on Saturday of six suspects linked to the company and the freezing of its assets.

Meanwhile, lawyer Kijja Ali-ishor, representing business owner Wannapa Poungson and her husband Korn Poungson, who are now facing a fraud probe, has sought release on bail for his clients at the Bangkok Criminal Court. The court already granted bails to the couple regarding initial complaint. However, as police filed several more complaints against them, more bail requests had to be submitted.

The lawyer said the issue stemmed from labels on the products, which he claimed did not contain any dangerous ingredient, but cited a different manufacturing factory. He claimed that the firm had already been ordered by the FDA to make the correction. The lawyer believed that his clients were bullied due to a business conflict and would consider suing those defaming them.

The FDA’s deputy chief, pharmacist Somchai Preechathaweekit, said the authority had inspected the company’s factory in Nakhon Ratchasima province and found the site had no machines, ingredients and packaging used in the manufacture of the 227 cosmetic products registered by Wannapa. This meant they were cosmetic products made by other manufacturing methods and facilities than those stated in the FDA registration. Thirty-nine products registered by the firm also had the same legal issue, the inspection concluded.

Somchai dismissed the lawyer’s claim about FDA instruction for correction of the label as untrue because no one had asked for an investigation into the firm until recently.

Somchai said celebrities who helped promote such problematic products might be held accountable for advertising-related offences, punishable with up to Bt100,000 in fines and/or up to a year in jail.

He urged consumers to check products’ FDA-registration numbers – which would soon come in the more-convenient QR code format.

A source at the police Crime Suppression Division said investigators were still questioning alleged victims as more people were filing complaints in this case. As of press time, no more arrest warrants had been sought. The suspects initially taken into police custody were Wannapa, Korn, Kasit Worachingtan, Piraniti Tiranawatthuporn, Maiyasit Sawangthammarat, and Trichada Jaisabai. Maiyasit and Trichada were granted bail during the past weekend.

The office’s acting secretary-general, Lt-Colonel Korntip Daroj, said yesterday that the commission would be asked to launch the probe at its meeting this coming Thursday.

“Based on information from the Education Ministry’s inspector-general, we believe at least 24 officials should be investigated,” he said. The alleged corruption of the Educational Fund for Life Development, which had start-up funding of Bt600 million, was exposed last month.

Rojana Sintee, a C8-ranked official, has claimed sole responsibility for the large-scale corruption that dragged on for more than a decade. The Education Ministry fired Rojana and is pursuing further investigations on suspicion that she might have had accomplices. Korntip said the Anti-Money Laundering Office had also helped check the financial flows from the fund.

Korntip’s office is currently investigating several big corruption cases. Asked about the progress in the investigation of corruption in the protection centres for the destitute, Korntip said preliminary investigations had found irregularities at 56 centres.

“The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission has already ordered further probes against 33 centres,” he said. He believed the commission would approve additional probes at its coming meeting. Korntip said investigations are ongoing at protection centres in 17 provinces.

Korntip said to date, probes had found no irregularities at protection centres for the destitute in Prachin Buri and Nakhon Si Thammarat. The Social Development and Human Security Ministry operates one protection centre for the destitute in every province.

Mahakan Fort Community’s Facebook page yesterday announced the creation of an online database and invited everyone with digital files about the community to share their data. The aim is to allow people to learn about the history of the community and its heritage, and the stories of the residents’ struggle to save their habitat and identity.

After decades of fighting to save one of the last living historic quarters of Bangkok, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has successfully evicted all the residents from the area. Tomorrow will be the last day that the Mahakan Fort Community physically exists. That is when all of the remaining residents will have to move out and their antique wooden houses will be torn down to make way for the construction of a public park.

“Our community will soon become a thing of the past, and it may even be removed from the official history of Bangkok. People cannot visit and learn from our rich heritage in person, but this does not mean that we no longer existed,” a community statement reads.

Learn the lessons

“We can still be the learning hub for the community in the online world. So, we want to invite every person who has digital memories about our community to share their pictures, video clips, documents, or any kind of files with us. We believe that our existence is less important than what society can learn from our story.”

Everyone is welcome to upload their files to the page at https://goo.gl/forms/eEQCoge3nUzPxzb52.

Sudjit Sananwai, a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture at Rangsit University, said it was very important for society to learn the lessons of Mahakan Fort Community. She said the online archive would be an assurance that these stories would not be forgotten.

“I am a member of the Association of Siamese Architects, and we have a lot of useful material available to share. I, myself, also fully support this crowdsourcing campaign to ensure that the tragedy that happened to Mahakan Fort Community will not be repeated elsewhere,” Sudjit said.

She said the information in this online database would be very significant. It would not only be an open-source resource for people to learn about this historic community, but the data would also provide vivid proof of the community’s existence. It would record events along the way of the struggle between the community members and the authorities through both academic and legal channels.

“Our investigation has found that embezzlement occurred at 10 temples and involved the amount of Bt140 million,” said Pol Colonel Warayut Sukawat, a deputy commander at the police force’s Counter Corruption Division.

He was speaking as he handed over a more than 4,000-page investigation report to the National Anti-Corruption Commission for further action.

“We have randomly checked the disbursement of state funds for 30 temples in this batch. Of these temples, 10 have showed signs of irregularities,” Warayut said.

Implicated in these new corruption cases are seven monks and several state officials, he added.

These suspects are in addition to the many already identified in the previous batches, the deputy commander said.

“For those who have complete documents, the verification should be done within one hour,” Labour Minister Pol General Adul Saengsingkaew said on Monday as he inspected the centre in Udon Thani province.

That centre has already verified the nationality of more than 600 migrant workers from Thailand’s neighbours – Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

The centre, however, still has to verify the nationality of another 300 applicants before the end of June.

“We focus on delivering fast services,” Adul said.

According to him, Laotian workers may also have their nationality verified in their homeland to complete their registration as workers in Thailand.

“For Laotians, it may be more convenient if they have their nationality proven in Laos,” Adul said.

The upcoming rallies by The Network to Reclaim Doi Suthep Forest are aimed at pressuring Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha into settling the dispute in their favour.

The network wants buildings that they view as having encroached on forestland to be demolished, while the Court of Appeals Region 5 has maintained that it legally acquired these plots of land and the budget to construct court officials’ residences.

The controversial site is at the foot of the Doi Suthep mountain and adjacent to the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, according to authorities. But opponents are convinced parts of the site have encroached on forestland.

Prayut will likely be the man who has to make a final decision on the dispute, after the Office of the Judiciary said at the height of the dispute that it would respect the government’s decision.

A public-private panel, set up by the Third Army Area’s chief, is set to forward the panel’s proposed solutions to Prayut by April 29.

The current and former presidents of the Court of Appeals Region 5, Savat Suravatananda and ChamnanRawiwanpong, have lately suggested that court officials should be allowed to use condo units and houses at the planned site for about 10 years after which all relevant parties could discuss again what to do next. These senior figures explained that court officials would also conduct environmental rehabilitation during the period. Built with a budget of nearly Bt1 billion, the houses and court buildings at the controversial site are almost completed.

“They speak as if they don’t know what the world is thinking. They don’t try to understand what others are trying to communicate,” Teerasak Rupsuwan, coordinator of the Network to Reclaim Doi Suthep Forest, said yesterday, reacting to statements from court officials.

His network has now urged its supporters to gather at the Tha Pae Gate in Chiang Mai town to make their stance known.

“Do not think of just the budget. Take into account other factors, too,” Teerasak said.

Bunnaroth Buaklee from the Chiang Mai-Loving Group, who attended a meeting of the network yesterday, said the network would stage another rally on May 6.

“If we get good news before May 6, our gathering will be for celebrations. But if we get bad news, we will step up our protests and mobilise more people,” he said.

A source said the move had been decided after police found video clips and photos of those presenters during an investigation into a claim that the company, Magic Skin, has no authorised use of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marks and that it was producing substandard products.

Tourist police commander Pol Maj-General Angkul Klaiklueng said yesterday that arrest warrants had been issued for deceitful action by eight suspects.

Six were now in police custody and the two others were still on the run, although they were expected to be arrested soon, he added.

During a raid at house in a housing estate on Ram-tra Road on Saturday led by Deputy national police chief Pol General Wirachai Songmettha, police found a variety of items relating to the production of fake cosmetics and food supplement products, such as fake labels and other fake products.

Also seized from the house were Bt19 million in cash, 53 gold rings and one luxury car, a Mercedes. The values of the items seized was Bt21 million.

Angkul yesterday led a raid at the firm’s factory in Pathum Thani’s Klong Luang district and confiscated what officers believed to be items connected with the allegations.

The raid was made after a detained suspect told police that the products had been produced at the factory.

Reporters were yesterday shown more than 100 boxes of the seized items.

Angkul said all the products were illegal as the firm has not yet obtained any permit from the FDA.

All the products were handmade and sub-standard, having been made without following any acceptable formula. “The producers of the cosmetics and supplementary food decided by themselves the volume of the ingredients. These were dangerous to consumers,” he said.

He also revealed that fertilisers were found in the factory and that police would check whether the factory had a permit to produce fertiliser or not.

The Saturday raids were also conducted in other places in Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima and Chon Buri provinces.

The police investigation found that the suspects had sold products with the trademarks Apple Slim, Snow Milk, Slim Milk, Magic Skin, Fern, Shinoshi, Mezzo and Treechada. Each of these carried either a fake FDA certificate or the wrong type of FDA certificate, Angkul said.

The raid and investigation into the company and the factory were the results of complaints by several victims who claimed they had been producing substandard items and fake cosmetics.

“For example, if you want medicines that are not on the national drug list, you will be charged,” Dr Seree Tuchinda, who heads the national healthcare reform committee, explained.

Seree said the reform will present three healthcare packages. The first one will offer basic healthcare for all Thais, regardless of what level of healthcare they are currently entitled to. Coverage under this package will be no less than that under the universal healthcare system now available for 48.8 million people. The second package will present the additional medical services that each major state-supported healthcare scheme wishes to provide to its members. The third package will offer medical benefits that people will get only when they pay extra under a co-payment scheme.

“The details of these three packages will become clear and definite within the next year,” Seree said.

However, Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, who sits on the National Health Security Board, attacked this plan. “It’s a reform planned by a certain group of people for their own group’s interests,” she said.

Kannikar said she suspected the reforms would mean that there would no longer be any free medical services for Thais.

At present, the country’s universal healthcare scheme offers most types of medical treatments for free.

Seree, meanwhile, downplayed concerns that these new packages would hurt the benefits Thais now enjoy, saying that fairness and risks of medical bankruptcy would be taken into consideration.

“In the event of co-payment, we will set the ceiling of what Thais will have to pay each year,” he said. “We will also ensure that local administrative bodies help the poor, at least partially, regarding the cost of treatments.”

Seree said that some people might oppose the concept of national healthcare reform because they thought they would lose some benefits. “But it’s necessary that we go with the concept that will benefit the majority. We need to take into account the fact that the government cannot fully pay for everyone’s medical costs. We need to be realistic,” he said.

Dr Churdchoo Ariyasriwatana, an adviser to the association protecting civil servants’ medical rights, agreed with the concept of making three packages available. “People must realise that there are no free things in this world. They can get basic healthcare for free, but if they want more than that, they have to accept co-payment,” she said. Churdchoo also believed that people would take better care of their health if they were aware they would have to pay a medical bill.

Asst-Professor Dr Thira Woratanarat, who teaches at the Chulalongkorn University’s Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, said medical costs would continue to climb in the face of increasingly advanced medical technologies. He noted that even rich countries could not afford to provide completely free medical services to their people. “The government cannot pay for medical treatments of all its citizens. At one point, sooner or later, it will find that it doesn’t have enough money to do that,” he said.

Thira recommended the government consider using the proceeds of “sin taxes” for public health and to promote healthy behaviour among people.

He said the government should also provide Thai consumers with healthy alternatives. For example, the government may offer tax incentives to entrepreneurs who produce healthier choices such as food with less sodium, fat or sugar.

Thira said the government should also provide counselling services to Thais to raise their awareness of medical costs and their choices so they can seek proper medical coverage. “Without counselling services, many people may fall prey to health-insurance firms. The government should help people assess their health risks and advise them as to which health insurance policy is suitable for them,” he said.

Thira also recommended the use of family medical services, which would ease overcrowding at big hospitals and reduce the use of unnecessary healthcare.

There are now three major healthcare systems in Thailand: the universal healthcare scheme, the social security scheme, and the medical benefit scheme for civil servants and their family members. In the current fiscal year, the annual per-capita budget is Bt2,592.89 for the first scheme, Bt3,354.80 for the second, and Bt12,676.06 for the third.

The upcoming national healthcare reform will set up a new National Health Policy Board to align healthcare policies and goals, and establish a National Health Data Clearing House to facilitate the delivery of medical services.

“We will also go toward decentralisation,” Seree explained.

THE HYPE over Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Bt11-billion investment in Thailand, announced last Thursday, and its huge Tmall online platform has only masked the country’s fundamental weaknesses in embracing the digital technology for economic and social benefits, according to experts.

Editorial: Toeing Jack Ma’s line easier said than done

Even though there were as many as 60,000 online orders for Thai durians in one day on Tmall, which covers the huge Chinese market of 1.4 billion consumers, on April 19 when the investment announcement was made, critics said it was unclear whether Thai durian growers and other farmers would gain from Alibaba’s bigger presence in Thailand.

Chotichai Bua-dit, president of the Rayong fruit orchard operators’ club, said it was good news that Thai durian growers had received many advance orders due to the advent of Alibiba, which already owns Lazada, the No 1 e-commerce site in Thailand. However, he is not sure whether durian and other farm prices will be depressed by these giant online platforms in the future due to their monopolistic power.

Suwit Saeng-arkard, the leader of another Rayong durian growers’ group, said Thai durian growers should benefit from Alibaba’s bigger presence as they will have more opportunities to sell their output, especially via online platforms.

Pramote Ruamsuk, adviser of the Eastern Provinces’ Chamber of Commerce, said he is not sure whether Thai farmers would gain more from Alibaba since there have been many Chinese businessmen setting up operations in Thailand to buy durians directly from farmers for online sales.

Somchai Ngamvannagul, a durian grower, said the wholesale price of Monthong durians had risen to Bt100 per kilogram from Bt70 earlier this month, but the supply is expected to be less than last year’s, so prices will probably be strong.

On Alibaba’s presence in Thailand, he said any benefits in the short term should be minimal for Thai durian growers due to this year’s expected lower supply.

Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn, a distinguished fellow at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) and expert on the agriculture sector, said e-commerce platforms in general were good for Thai farmers since there are no middlemen to take profits.

Regarding Alibaba’s bigger presence in Thailand, he said that Alibaba’s Tmall online marketplace has a solid reputation in protecting the interests of buyers, since it will not pay the sellers if their products are not satisfactory. However, he said Thailand is not well-prepared to take advantage of online platforms and other features of the digital economy due to the shortage of qualified personnel and lack of inter-ministerial policy coordination.

For example, there is a shortage of people with skills in big data, analytics, artificial intelligence and other areas crucial to develop the digital economy.

In the case of Alibaba he said the Chinese e-commerce giant was not only selling products and services online, but it also provided loans on the digital platform using the massive data generated by millions of online transactions between buyers and sellers.

Nipon said the country had not been able to produce enough graduates with skills in digital and related fields to serve the massive investment projects in the Eastern Economic Corridor. He said the government should work more closely with universities and research institutes to support its Thailand 4.0 initiative.

Regardless of the development proposals they have put forward and volunteer services they have offered, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has stood firm by its decision that the community must leave so that a new public park can be developed.

As residents are evicted, their old wooden houses are being demolished.

BMA said that the plan to develop the park had not yet been finalised, but it was quite certain that a community historic park will not be included in the plan and there will be an open lawn with trees.

The community has survived several eviction deadlines, but the last of the community’s members will meet the final one this Wednesday, said Pornthep Buranaburidet, former deputy leader of the community.

In the final hours of the Mahakan Fort community yesterday, only eight houses still remained, clustered around the main alleyway of the community. The rest of the once-bustling residential area is now just empty land with rocky ruins scattered on the ground.

According to prominent historian Sujit Wongthet, the small patch of land between Bangkok’s old city wall and Khlong Rop Krung has never been without habitation in at least 200 years, as this land was home to generation after generation of people. “People come and go. It is the nature of communities like this, but this community has never lacked for residents,” Sujit once remarked.

Former community head Thawatchai Voramahakun recalled that the Mahakan Fort enclave had once been a warm and lively community with more than 50 houses, with people from various backgrounds and places of origin living together on the relatively small plot of land on the edge of Bangkok’s old town.

“From the diversity of the people in the community, we once had a rich cultural heritage. For example, my family used to build traditional Thai musical instruments, while there were the families who crafted bird cages or pottery,” Thawatchai said.

“Even the houses represent our identities. Every wooden plank of these houses has a story to tell. For us, history, heritage and home cannot be separated.”

However, BMA deputy permanent secretary Suwanna Jungrungrueng said that under the BMA’s latest development decision for the Mahakan Fort Community area, no houses would be spared and the entire land area will be developed as a public park. “We will keep the old trees, as long as they are safe and do not harm the historic site of Mahakan Fort, but we will have to discuss among the related official agencies any further plans for the design of Mahakan Fort Park,” Suwanna said.

Even as the last remnants of the ancient Mahakan Fort Community are rooted out and their lives and buildings are transformed from living history to archived records, Thawatchai pledged to keep preserving and transplanting the living heritage of his community and growing them elsewhere. The true heritage of the community lives on in all its members, he said.

“These are our last tears and Mahakan Fort Community will be reborn with the remaining old souls of the community members and we will eternally prevail,” he insisted.