A mobile Cabinet meeting at Buriram Rajabhat University yesterday reportedly discussed the issues and demands of the People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move) protesters and ordered every related ministry to address their problems.

Jamnong Nu-phan, a prominent P-Move member, said the group was pleased with the outcome of the Cabinet meeting.

However, the activists would continue their peaceful demonstration in Bangkok at least until the end of this month, he added, to ensure authorities followed up with action.

“It is understandable that authorities must follow steps in taking action, so we accept official procedures and will wait to see how each ministry will solve our problems,” he said. “Meanwhile we will extend our stay in Bangkok to make sure our problems are not forgotten.”

Jamnong said a P-Move meeting was planned for last night to discuss the issue.

He insisted, however, that the protest would not join the mass rally against the military government by the Democracy Restoration Group at Government House on May 22, as P-Move had a clear goal to mitigate the problems of the poor and wished to steer clear of politics.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said during yesterday’s Cabinet meeting that it was impossible for the government to heed everyone’s problems and urged the protesters not to ask for too much.

“The government is working hard to solve the problems of the poor people, as we are rushing actions on what we can do now, which will take around two weeks, as we have to comply with the rules and regulations,” Prayut said.

He said that the responsibility for addressing these issues lay with the National Land Policy Committee, which allocates land for the landless, adding that more than one million rai in 60 provinces had already been handed out, but there was a problem of how to distribute limited land to millions of landless people. Meanwhile, P-Move protesters are still expressing doubts about the authorities’ sincerity, concerned that concrete solutions to their problems may never materialise.

“We want at least an assurance from the Cabinet that our problems are not ignored. Until then we will continue our demonstration in Bangkok, as we have nothing to lose,” said protester Nulek Sammida.

“We came here demanding an end to our problems and we will die here fighting for our rights rather than go back home to find that our land still does not belong to us.”

Nulek is from one of 56 families from Ban Thung Luilai in Chaiyaphum suffering under a dispute stemming from the Royal Forest Department and NCPO’s forest reclamation campaign. She said that her community has been campaigning to recover the rights to their land for two decades.

“I myself have come to Bangkok to protest on this same issue countless times, but nothing has been done to resolve our problem,” she said.

“Our problems got worse under the NCPO, as it has imposed hostile policies toward public activism, while also doing nothing to solve the problems of the poor and landless people.”

Tourist Police Bureau deputy head Maj-General Surachet Hakpan yesterday said his officers were looking into the allegations.

A vendor who asked not to be named said that besides paying rent for her premises, she also paid “protection money” so the authorities would turn a blind eye to her business.

She refused to name the people she paid out of concern for her safety. “Reporters get information and are gone, police guard the place for up to 30 days and are gone but we vendors are still here,” she said.

“Where in Thailand are vendors not asked for protection money? You tell me,” she said.

Another vendor, who also asked not to be identified, said those who had signed a direct rental contact with the market landlords paid between Bt500 and Bt3,000 a month in protection money, while several people who rented buildings with the Treasury Department paid tens of thousand of baht.

The second vendor also refused to say who demanded the protection money.

Surachet yesterday attended a meeting with representatives of the Treasury Department, the Revenue Department and the Anti-Money Laundering Office to discuss wrongdoing at the market, the charges to be filed and those likely to be charged.

He said police would launch legal action against vendors linked to the 300,000 products seized in five recent raids and against Donmuang Pattana Company for modifying buildings without permission and for encroaching on Prem Prachakorn Canal. This latter offence might also lead to a money-laundering charge, Surachet added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha challenged Pol Lt-Colonel Santhana Prayoonrat, former deputy superintendent at the Special Branch Police Division who now serves as the market-operating firm’s adviser, to reveal a “multi-million-worth conflict of interest” that allegedly involved a military officer in the government.

Prayut said the disclosure would allow the accused to tell his side of story and he warned that Santhana would be held accountable if the accusation was untrue.

Santhana claimed he had information and this was the reason behind the recent raids, although police said they were part of an ongoing crackdown on illegal cosmetics.

Meanwhile, Channel 3 drama actress Virakarn “Maprang” Seneetantikul, 29, whose “Be Curve” food supplement product was allegedly using exaggerated ads and being sold via a “pyramid scheme”, told police that she had not broken any law.

Virakarn said a private company had tested the product and confirmed it was safe and did not contain any banned ingredient.

She also said the results of tests carried out by the Food and Drug Administration and the Medical Science Department had still not been published.

She claimed some of her 99NewOne company’s 18 distributors had added text to advertisement posters claiming the product had a fast-slimming effect as well as financial gains for those who used it.

The firm had warned them that their distribution rights would be cancelled if they did that again.

The People Health Systems Movement (PHSM) yesterday said the bill damages the checks-and-balances principle and raises concerns that it might allow the Public Health Ministry to centralise power concerning healthcare management.

“The bill, for example, will put just three representatives of the people’s sector on the 44-member board,” the movement’s prominent member Apiwat Kwangkaew said yesterday as he lodged a petition addressed to Deputy Prime Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya through the government’s complaint-receiving centre.

Chatchai oversees the Public Health Ministry.

Apiwat said that with the people’s sector under-represented on the board, it would not be possible to uphold checks and balances.

He referred to the National Health Policy Board as the “superboard”.

Chaired by the prime minister, the board will have the power to formulate directions and policies for the country’s health care sector.

It will also have the power to integrate health care work, budgets, laws and regulation and will have the authority to issue health care-related regulations, if the current bill is approved.

Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, of the PHSM, yesterday said that the national strategy for health care reform, which was already promulgated in the Royal Gazette, would pave the way for the centralisation of power.

The national health care reform committee’s chairman, Dr Seree Tuchinda, an adviser to the public health minister, believed the movement might have misunderstood the strategy.

“I don’t think the National Health Policy Board is a superboard. It’s not that big,” Seree said. “It is not going to centralise power for the Public Health Ministry. The board, when established, will have representatives from all sectors.”

He said the bill would set up health care zones to support decentralisation and the zones would be introduced gradually.

“We will begin with some zones first. Only after results are assessed and positive results confirmed, will we expand them further,” Seree said.

He believed the National Health Policy Board would be established within two years.

“These seven are still in service. Their ranks range from C8 to C11,” the ministry’s inspector Atthapon Treuktrong said, as chairman of the fact-finding committee.

C11 is the highest rank in Thailand’s bureaucrat system.

The committee was established to look into alleged irregularities in the Educational Fund for Life Development, following reports that nearly Bt100 million had been illegally channelled to undeserving recipients. Initially, the damages were estimated at Bt88 million but an investigation suggests the amount could be higher.

This week, the committee revealed that a total of 25 current and retired officials were found to have committed wrongdoing related to the scandal. “Most of them engaged in negligence but some are directly involved in corruption,” Atthapon said on Monday.

He said the next step was to take further actions, including civil proceedings for compensation, against each accused official and retiree.

In the wake of the scandal, only one official – Rojana Sintee – has admitted wrongdoing. She has already been fired.

The alleged embezzlement of funds has reportedly dragged on for more than a decade. Although complaints had been sent to the Education Ministry several times, Rojana had apparently intercepted and responded to each complaint with false explanations, concealing the scandal until this year.

Atthapon said his committee would dig deeper and submit more reports to relevant authorities.

“To date, the Anti-Money Laundering Office’s probe into financial flows has covered transactions between 2011 and 2018 only. We will have to go back further,” Atthapon said.

Meanwhile, the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) probe into alleged corruption involving state funds for the destitute under the care of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, has found grounds to take action against at least 217 officials.

The number of implicated officials continues to rise as the PACC probe has expanded to cover the disbursement of funds across the country.

Late last month, the number stood at 189.

“We will forward the list of the implicated officials to their agencies so that disciplinary actions can be taken. These accused officials should also be transferred,” PACC acting secretary general Pol Lt Colonel Korntip Daroj said.

He also gave an update about the investigation into the Bt200,000 procurement of blankets for elderly people in Sing Buri province. “At this point, we have found that blankets were bought at Bt400 apiece, higher than the market price,” he said.

Korntip said the probe would check whether the blankets were needed in Sing Buri.

The verdict had initially been postponed to June 21, but the court delayed it further after 41-year-old Nithiwadee “Mor Nim” Phucharoenyos said she wanted to attend a school meeting for her youngest son on that day.

Lawyers for two other defendants said they were also busy on that date.

Nithiwadee was sentenced to death by the primary court in December 2016 after she was found guilty of masterminding the murder.

Her lawyer Chamnan Chadit said that whatever the verdict at the Appeals Court, his client would post Bt2 million to apply for release on bail while the case was taken to the Supreme Court. Nithiwadee and family members left the court without giving any comment.

Santi Thongsem, a 31-year-old lawyer sentenced to death for helping to arrange Jakkrit’s murder, failed to turn up at court yesterday.

His lawyer said that Santi’s car had broken down in Phatthalung.

Two other defendants were in court yesterday.

Jeerasak Klinkhai, the gunman, and Tawatchai Phetchote, who trailed Jakkrit on October 19, 2013 to inform Jeerasak of the victim’s precise location, had been in a remand prison since their capture in September 2016.

Both had their death sentences commuted to life in prison by the primary court because they had provided useful information to authorities. Nithiwadee and Santi had been released on bail on condition they did not to leave Thailand.

The four defendants were also ordered by the primary court to pay Jakkrit’s family Bt2.5 million compensation plus 7.5 per cent annual interest until full payment is made.

Another defendant, Nithiwadee’s 75-year-old mother Surang Duangchinda, had earlier been acquitted by the primary court, as there was no evidence to support the claim that she had Jakkrit killed because she could not bear to see him abuse her daughter any longer.

Jakkrit’s mother Boonkid Panichpatikum, who was present in court yesterday, told reporters she had never been angry with Nithiwadee and actually was worried for her.

She said she had forgiven Nithiwadee and praised her for being a devoted mother and taking good care of her two grandchildren, whom she also missed dearly. She said Nithiwadee’s request to attend her son’s school meeting had made her cry.

Boonkid said she accepted Nithiwadee’s “wai” of respect with no hard feelings and had sympathy for her, saying her daughter-in-law was good to her during her marriage to Jakkrit.

Boonkid also said a land dispute in Prachuap Khiri Khan had been resolved by a court ruling and Jakkrit and Nithiwadee’s families would jointly manage the plot.

The refugees – who had fled fighting in Kayah state 27 years ago and had been living at the Ban Mai Nai Soi camp in Muang Mae Hong Son – returned home voluntarily.

They were sent across the border via the traders’ checkpoint in Ban Huai Ton Nun in Khun Yuam district.

They followed an initial group of 71 refugees repatriated in October 2016 and 73 others sent home via Tak on Monday.

Myanmar officials led by Colonel Myint Wai, Kayah state’s Minister of Security and Border Affairs, welcomed them back in a ceremony attended by Natapanu Nopakun of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Department of International Organisations and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp now holds about 8,000 people, down from a peak of more than 20,000. Many have found homes in third countries, while others returned to Myanmar.

A source at the camp said the latest group of 19 people should have numbered 29, but the others changed their mind following a report about Myanmar government light infantry being deployed to Kayah in mid-April.

The source claimed the same infantry battalion had pursued the Karenni National Progressive Army in 2005, with combat taking place just west Mae Hong Son.

They crossed the border at Ban Rim Moei in Mae Sot district following a ceremony at which Third Army Region deputy chief Major General Supachoke Thawatpeerachai presided.

The 73 came from camps in Tha Song Yang, Phop Phra and Umphang districts in Tak and another in Kanchanaburi.

They were driven across the border in vans to be greeted in Myawaddy by Kayin state Chief Minister Nann Khin Htway Myint and other senior officials.

Myanmar Ambassador U Myo Myint Than witnessed the event and thanked the Thai government and agencies involved, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and non-governmental organisations, for taking care of the refugees.