Lesson 4: Illegal construction at Dong Cay Dua Stadium (Cong Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh) needs to be handled.

(Baonghean.vn)The complicated incident started when the Pastoral Council of Ngoc Long parish (in Cong Thanh commune - Yen Thanh) suddenly mobilized parishioners to illegally construct a project on a stadium planned by the commune to serve the cultural and sports needs of the people. Nghe An Newspaper reporters went directly to the locality and met with relevant parties to learn about this issue...

Cong Thanh is a purely agricultural commune with a population of over 11,000 people, including about 5,000 parishioners of Ngoc Long Parish (Bao Nham district) living in 4 hamlets: Ru, Dong Rao, Ngoc Thuong, Long Tien. Long Tien parish hamlet alone is a provincial-level cultural village, with a strong party cell with 28 party members...

From the common needs of the people of the whole commune and based on the spirit of Decision No. 100/2005/QD-TTg dated October 31, 2005 of the Prime Minister on approving the program for developing sports clusters in communes, wards and towns until 2010, the People's Council of Cong Thanh commune issued Resolution No. 07/NQ-HDND dated August 14, 2007 planning the whole commune to have 4 stadiums for 4 inter-hamlet sports clusters.

During the process of planning implementation, on September 15, 2007, the priestNguyen Duy Khanh (the former parish priest of Ngoc Long Parish) wrote a note to the proposal requesting the commune government to approve the construction of a stadium for the four Catholic hamlets mentioned above. Considering that the wishes of the people of the four hamlets were consistent with the goal of implementing a grassroots cultural and information institution, the People's Committee of Cong Thanh Commune and the People's Committee of Yen Thanh District established procedures to submit and were approved by the Provincial People's Committee to select the location to build a sports complex for the four hamlets in Decision No. 4521/QD.UBND.CN dated November 8, 2007 with an area of ​​5,860m2.

It is noteworthy that the Ngoc Long Parish Pastoral Council has coordinated well with the government to mobilize people to donate land to build a stadium according to the plan, and 27 households in Ngoc Thuong hamlet (25 Catholic households, 2 non-Catholic households) have voluntarily transferred their family's agricultural land assigned under Decree 64 ND/CP to the Commune People's Committee to decide on the planning of the inter-hamlet sports complex stadium, also known as Dong Cay Dua Stadium. Responding to the policy of promoting internal resources, people in 4 hamlets filled the ground, leveled the ground to form a stadium and put it into use, meeting the needs of healthy sports and cultural activities of the people.

While the sports stadium of 4 hamlets (Ru hamlet, Dong Rao hamlet, Ngoc Thuong, Long Tien) and 3 other inter-hamlet stadiums of Cong Thanh commune according to the plan were being used for the right purpose and effectively, suddenly the Parish Priest of Ngoc Long Parish - Priest Tran Van Phuc (who had just replaced Priest Nguyen Duy Khanh) directed the Parish Pastoral Council to mobilize parishioners to build a wall surrounding the stadium about 1.7 m high and a house with 4 rooms, 5 compartments, 15 meters long, 6 meters wide. This construction work was carried out urgently and unusually throughout the day of May 26, 2011...

On September 27, 2011, Nghe An Newspaper reporters went to Cong Thanh commune to investigate the incident. Regarding the above illegal construction; in addition to causing instability and affecting the management of the commune government, the actions of the Parish Council and a part of the parishioners of 4 hamlets have affected the peaceful life and work of the parishioners in general. Having access to the documents and through discussions with the Cong Thanh commune government as well as the parish priest Tran Van Phuc, we (reporters) have systematized the developments of the incident as follows:

Before and during the incident, the authorities of Cong Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district had exchanged phone calls, made a record of administrative violations, issued a suspension decision (3 times), invited to work and asked priest Tran Van Phuc and the Parish Pastoral Council to stop the illegal construction of the projects, but priest Tran Van Phuc and the Parish Pastoral Council still urgently promoted the construction. On June 10, 2011, Chairman of Yen Thanh district People's Committee - Mr. Nguyen Tien Loi had a working session with priest Tran Van Phuc and Chairman of the Parish Pastoral Council of Ngoc Long Parish - Mr. Nguyen Van Huong (now retired).

At the meeting, the district authorities clearly explained: Ngoc Long Parish's arbitrarily carrying out construction on land not assigned by the State for management and use is illegal, leading to a series of violations according to the provisions of Article 15 of the 2003 Land Law on prohibited acts; at the same time, violating Clauses 2 and 3, Article 1 of the Ordinance on Religious Beliefs.

Immediately after the working session, the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district issued Conclusion No. 151/TB-UBND, which affirmed that the sports complex of hamlet 4 (also known as Dong Cay Dua Stadium) is a public project serving the cultural and sports needs of the people of the 4 hamlets, is the common property of the people of the 4 hamlets directly managed and used by the People's Committee of Cong Thanh commune; not the land of Ngoc Long Parish.

Requesting priest Tran Van Phuc and the Pastoral Council of Ngoc Long Parish to clearly recognize the violations and direct parishioners to voluntarily dismantle all illegally built structures before June 30, 2011, demonstrating respect for the law and the pastoral direction of the Catholic Church in Vietnam. The District People's Committee has also twice sent official dispatches (No. 440 UBND.NV dated May 31, 2011 and 529/UBND.NV dated June 23, 2011) to the Bishop of Vinh Diocese, Mr. Nguyen Thai Hop, to clarify the right and wrong, state the point of view and request the Bishop to direct Ngoc Long Parish to dismantle the illegally built structures. However, up to now, this structure has not been dismantled, causing dissatisfaction among the people and affecting the stability of the locality.

We headed to the center of Ngoc Long Parish. In the church grounds, many groups of workers were urgently repairing and constructing. On the other side, the inter-hamlet sports field was surrounded by a solid wall and had two large gates. At the corner of the stadium was a solidly built, level four house with a raised foundation.

Talking to us, Father Tran Van Phuc explained that the mobilization to build a fence around the stadium was to prevent cattle and to avoid people littering indiscriminately. The house was to "serve the hygiene and washing needs of people when participating in sports". The priest admitted that "we were wrong about the construction procedures" and continued to request "to consult the people, especially the households that donated land" as in the parish's response document dated June 27, 2011 in response to the Conclusion Notice of Yen Thanh District People's Committee dated June 14, 2011.

The priest presented the petition of some households donating land and the receipt of the previous priest Nguyen Duy Khanh to prove that the land of the 4-hamlet sports complex is the land of... Ngoc Long Parish (!). However, this evidence is not a legal basis, because in fact, the land of Ngoc Long Parish was granted a Certificate of Land Use Rights by the People's Committee of Nghe An province for plot number 215, map sheet 11, area 7390m2, not including the area of ​​the 4-hamlet sports complex. When asked what the priest thought about the land used to build Dong Cay Dua Stadium, which was agricultural land allocated to people for production according to Decree 64?, the priest did not answer frankly.

According to the Land Law, the donation of agricultural land by households to Ngoc Long Parish as the priest mentioned is not in accordance with the provisions of the law and is not recognized or protected by the law. The law also does not stipulate that parishes have the function of managing and building football fields, sports areas, and public sports clusters. Moreover, the donation and transfer of agricultural land by 27 households in Ngoc Thuong hamlet to build a sports cluster in 4 hamlets has become public land managed by the State (directly by the People's Committee of Cong Thanh commune) with full legal documents certifying its legality. From there, it is affirmed that the land in the sports cluster in 4 hamlets is absolutely not the land of Ngoc Long Parish. Regarding the opinion of the priest suggesting that a referendum be held to determine the purpose of the people's land donation is unnecessary. Because the people of hamlet 4 have agreed to choose the construction site after many discussions, have voluntarily donated and transferred land and contributed human and financial resources to build the people's stadium. This has also been approved by the People's Council of the commune by resolution, the State has issued a decision to approve, survey the location, reclaim the land... and in fact the sports complex has been put into effective use by the people since 2007 until now, so there is no reason to organize a "re-" referendum on people's opinions...

Working with the Cong Thanh commune government, Mr. Ho Phi Hoe - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: In order to unify the management and use of the sports stadiums, the Commune People's Committee issued Decision No. 08/QD-UBND dated December 25, 2007 on promulgating the regulations on management and use of the cultural and sports entertainment area of ​​4 Dong Cay Dua hamlets. It clearly stipulates: The sports cluster of 4 hamlets belongs to the land reserved for cultural and sports purposes. All people are allowed to participate in sports activities at the stadium and it is agreed that the Management Boards of 4 hamlets: Ru, Dong Rao, Ngoc Thuong and Long Tien are responsible for maintaining the stadium as well as cultural, sports and physical activities on the stadium in accordance with State regulations. All construction and upgrading of the scale of this stadium is only allowed when the management entity, the Cong Thanh commune government, permits it.

In recent times, to facilitate religious activities of the people, with the support of the authorities at all levels, the parishes and congregations in Cong Thanh have rebuilt larger and more solemn worship facilities, and at the same time issued Land Use Rights Certificates to the parishes and congregations to ensure the legal land use rights of religious establishments according to the provisions of law, while ensuring the State's land management rights. This includes the construction of Dong Cay Dua Stadium to meet the sports needs of the people in the four Catholic hamlets... Thus, the statement of priest Tran Van Phuc that the government does not care about the wishes of the people is completely incorrect.

Through the investigation of the actual situation, it is shown that the most necessary and correct thing to do at this time is to respect the law, respect the rights and obligations of the people to comply with the law in order to actively coordinate in dismantling illegal constructions, and soon restore the true meaning and criteria of a stadium that meets the healthy cultural and sports activities of the people at the grassroots level, specifically here, of the people of 4 hamlets: Ru, Dong Rao, Ngoc Thuong, Long Tien.

PV Group