A product associated with actress Ranee “Bella” Campen, although having an FDA registration number, would face a probe over an alleged exaggerated advertisement, said Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deputy chief and pharmacist Somchai Preechathaveekit yesterday. Exaggerated advertising is punishable by up to three years in prison and/or up to a Bt30,000 in fine, while illegal advertising about a product’s quality and benefits for commercial gain is punishable by a fine up to Bt5,000.

Ranee however has insisted the product could withstand a probe, as she has operated the business legally and transparently. Consumers and distributors should remain confident, she said. Ranee’s business partner Wirakan Senitantikul said the reportedly exaggerated advertisement did not come from the firm but from a distributor. They had given the distributor a warning and had the ad adjusted, said Wirakan. She said they had again submitted the product for the FDA’s and the Medical Science Department’s testing to clear the accusation.

Meanwhile, five food supplement product brands are being investigated to ensure they had not exaggerated claims or broken any related laws. The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s (NBTC) broadcasting commissioner Lt-General Peerapong Manakij said that the FDA and the NBTC had suspended airtime via four digital and satellite TV channels for the five brands while the probe is underway. The probed products are: Gotu Kola of Crystal Herbs; Z-Nature Corydyceb and Ganoderma Lucidum extracts; SOM CMax Instant Coffee Powder; Doublemaxx; and BioOne.

As for other ads potentially breaking the law on online TV, the NBTC will wait for the FDA official report on the initial probe before acting accordingly, Peerapong added.

In related news, police yesterday morning searched an office at Don Muang Pattana Co Ltd used by Pol Lt-Colonel Santhana Prayoonrat. Santhana, a former deputy superintendent at the Special Branch Police Division, is serving as an adviser to the company.

Tourist Police Bureau deputy head Maj-General Surachet Hakpan, who led the warranted raid yesterday, called a meeting of market committee members in the afternoon to discuss an allegation that market vendors had extorting protection money over the past two years and requested co-operation for the probe.

Police would today talk with representatives of the Treasury Department, the Revenue Department and the Anti-Money Laundering Office about the controversies involving the market, including 70 rental contracts and alleged money extortion, he said.

Damages from the alleged encroachment, which spans more than 6,000 rai (960 hectares) in Loei province, are estimated at about Bt680 million.

Bhilaijit Rerngpittaya, 68, Nijaporn Charanachitta, 67, and Orn-aim Terdprawat, 65, are directors of CPK International, which has occupied the Loei plots.

Premchai is a director without signatory power.

The three sisters surrendered themselves to the National Police Office’s Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division.

“The accused have admitted that their firm has occupied all the plots. But they claimed they simply inherited what their father had left behind,” Deputy National Police Commissioner Pol General Srivara Ransibrahamanakul said.

Officials would now go ahead with legal proceedings and revoke any land-right documents for the plots, he added.

According to Loei Governor Chaiwat Chuenkosum, any land-right documents for the plots must be revoked in line with the 1941 Forest Act.

“After the act was introduced, no one can occupy them,” Chaiwat said.

Nearly 200 people showed up at the Loei Provincial Hall yesterday morning to express moral support for Chaiwat, who played a role in bringing forward the cases against Premchai’s siblings.

The accused are from one of the country’s richest families.

Chaiwat had previously accompanied Srivara and officials on a survey of various plots in Loei after receiving a complaint of alleged encroachment. As a result of the survey, authorities filed complaints against CPK International and its directors.

Complaints filed against trio of sisters

1.     Feb 13: Encroachment on 6,215 rai in Loei’s Phu Rua and Dan Sai districts

Damages: Bt621.5 million

2.     Feb 13: Encroachment on six rai in Loei’s Phu Rua district

Damages: Bt600,000

3.     Feb 21: Encroachment on 16 rai

Damages: Bt1.6 million

4.     Feb 23: Encroachment on 293 rai in Phu Rua district

Damages: Bt24.9 million

5.     Mar 23: Encroachment on 117 rai in Dan Sai district

Damages: Bt8.3 million

6.     Apr 24, 2018: Encroachment on 253 rai in Phu Rua

Damages: Bt23.2 million

Premchai allowed to travel overseas

All three denied any wrongdoing and were released on bail of Bt300,000 each. Premchai, who is nominally barred from travelling overseas, sought and received permission from the court to make a two-day business trip to India on May 10-11.

“I have denied all charges,” Premchai said after the appearance. “I admit I am now worried.”

The court arranged for a further review of evidence and witnesses to be held on June 25 at 1.30pm regarding the possession of illegal ivory.

The ivory tusks were seized from Premchai’s house in Bangkok along with 43 guns, after an investigation stemming from his arrest in early February in a Kanchanaburi wildlife sanctuary.

Premchai also faces seven charges related to poaching in the sanctuary, after his group were found with the carcass of a black leopard and other dead animals.

Kanitha was identified as the person who had registered the ivory – which was later deemed to be tusks taken from African elephants – with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. Wandee is accused of countersigning the registration application as a witness, to falsely verify that the tusks were from local elephants.

  The protest organised by the People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move) has reached agreement with several official agencies and made satisfactory progress on their campaign for resolving land rights disputes. However, having to live on the streets in the meantime has taken a heavy toll on the mainly rural people.

The unsanitary living conditions on Bangkok’s roadsides, unseasonal storms and a lack of food and water have caused some to fall ill and at least two protesters have been hospitalised.

P-Move coordinator Witawas Thepsong said the demonstrators still had a strong will to achieve their goal of having the government set clear plans to solve the problems caused by its current land policies, but he was worried about their health.

“The protesters have already had to live streetside in Bangkok for nearly a week. They are directly exposed to the pollution, unhealthy living conditions and extreme weather, so many of our colleagues have started to get sick,” he said.

Hot days followed by heavy rain at night was causing many protesters to catch colds, he said.

Meanwhile, the supply of food and water that the participants brought with them from home has already run out, so they are having to spend what little money they have on these basic provisions.

“We would like to ask the government to provide us with food, water, fundamental utilities and healthcare assistance, as more and more participants in the protest, especially the children and elderly, have started to get sick,” Witawas said.

“It is the duty of the state to take care of its citizens. Moreover, it is the improper governmental policies that have caused problems for the people in the first place, so we have had to come to Bangkok to demand changes from the government.”

Witawas said the group had been successful in signing memorandums of understanding with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, Transport Ministry and Interior Ministry.

They had also been encouraged by progress made since they laid out clear plans.

He said, the group was scheduled to have a discussion yesterday evening with the Finance Ministry, and had waited patiently for their troubles to be brought to a meeting of the Cabinet today. They hope these final meetings will result in a final resolutions of their problems.

CHIANG MAI citizen networks have announced what they see as the first step towards ending the controversy over the judges’ residence project at Doi Suthep Mountain, as two joint committees have been set up to look at the issues of healing the “scar on the face of Doi Suthep” and settle the legal issues of demolition of state property.

The coordinator of Doi Suthep Forestland Reclamation Network, Teerasak Rupsuwan, said after the latest meeting between citizen groups and local authorities in Chiang Mai yesterday that the reclamation of the encroached land on the Doi Suthep forest has officially started, as the public sector and authorities have already reached the agreement to return the Court of Justice’s housing project for judges back to forestland.

Teerasak said that representatives of public sector and related official agencies will work together on two newly formed joint committees with a mission to heal the encroached land and solve the legal issues that may arise from the clearing out of the state’s properties.

“The first committee will have the task to reforest the land back to its former state as part of the Doi Suthep forest. The Royal Forest Department will take the lead on this mission, as they will provide the tree seedlings, reforestation technique and officers, while the citizen networks will support them with other help they may need,” Teerasak said.

“Meanwhile, the second committee is exclusively set up to deal with any legal issues that may arise, as according to the law, this project was legally proceeded and authorised. This committee will have the major task to make sure that the revocation of this state project and reclamation effort will also be legal.”

He said that from now on the army would build a new access road to the encroached land to avoid using the entrance of the Appeals Court Region 5.

As well, surveying land at the site of justice officials’ housing project will start this Thursday to draw the line of the former forestland and identify the area that has encroached into the forest.

“There will be an official ceremony on May 27 to mark the start of reforestation effort. On that day, the representatives from related agencies and people from Chiang Mai and elsewhere will plant the trees together,” he said.

However, he said yesterday’s meeting did not discuss deeper details, such as the cost of the entire land reclamation effort, as he the meeting was merely to talk about draft plans and frameworks for the cooperation between the public and the authorities.

Meanwhile, the Court of Justice’s spokesperson, Suriyan Hongwilai, said that the agency was currently waiting for the official letter from the government on the solution to this issue.

Suriyan said that Court of Justice was ready to comply with the government’s final decision.