Gen Preecha defends undeclared house

GENERAL Preecha Chan-o-cha, former permanent secretary of the Defence Ministry, admitted yesterday that he owned an unnumbered house in Phitsanulok province which was not declared to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
Preecha said the house was meant to be his family abode after he retired and he had just been given its number as building finished in August. 
He said he planned to declare the house as an additional asset to the NACC in line with his obligation as a member of the National Legislative Assembly.
“This is nothing strange,” he said. “I’m getting used to my family being attacked. Does this mean that I can’t do anything at all?”
He was responding after the house scandal broke when the Facebook page of anti-corruption crusader Veera Somkwamkid displayed photos of a large, unnumbered house said to be located on a five-rai (0.8 hectare) property in Phitsanulok’s Mueang district
Citing an anonymous source from local authority, Veera said the house was worth tens of millions of baht.
“Local people said that [the house] was built in 2014 ... [The] owner and his family moved in early this year,” Veera, who is secretary general of the People’s Anti-Corruption Network, said on the post. “They confirmed that it belongs to General Preecha and [his wife] Pongphan Chan-o-cha.
“[If that is so] we need to ask the NACC whether General Preecha has declared it to them. The way such a big manor is not numbered, it is as if [the owners] want to conceal something.”
According to Preecha’s declaration to the NACC in 2014, he and Pongphan had total assets worth Bt79.4 million with no debt. Pongphan also owned 12 land lots worth Bt9.1 million and buildings worth Bt170,000. 
Ten of the 12 lots are located in Mueang district of Phitsanulok and were obtained by Pongphan from June 5-9 in 2014. Nine of them were issued with sequenced title deed numbers, from No 89859-89867, and have an estimated worth of about Bt6 million.
“Gen Preecha has to declare assets to the NACC a year after his retirement from the Defence Ministry [last September],” Veera said in a phone interview. “It is his responsibility to elaborate on how the house was obtained, otherwise he could be deemed to possess unusual wealth.”
The 60-year-old brother of Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has faced a series of controversies for allegedly inappropriate actions. In 2014, numbers of his and Pongphan’s deposits declared to the NACC were found to be inconsistent, although Preecha said they were just due to ‘technical errors’.
In April this year, while serving for the Defence Ministry, he appointed his youngest son Patipat to the post of second lieutenant in the Army. When members of the public asked if that was appropriate, Preecha said he had followed legal procedure and that “Other officials in the Army, not only me, also do this kind of thing.”
In September, Isra News Agency reported that Preecha’s son, Pratompol, had obtained business concessions for state construction projects worth more than Bt155 million. Three of them belonged to the 3rd Army Area, where Preecha was a commanding general. 
His wife Pongphan, meanwhile, came under fire after photos were circulated of her presiding over the opening of a dyke named after her and travelling on an Air Force plane. That triggered questions about her privileges and connection with the Armed Force.