The case of illegal construction on public land and the responsibility of the parish priest: Part 1: Deliberate disregard for discipline and the law

(Baonghean) - In late September and early October 2011, Nghe An Newspaper published a series of articles reflecting on the illegal land occupation and construction of structures on Dong Cay Dua Stadium in Cong Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh. Unfortunately, to date, Priest Tran Van Phuc - Parish Priest of Ngoc Long (Bao Nham Diocese) still deliberately ignores the law and does not comply with the local demolition decision. In response to public opinion, Nghe An Newspaper continues to return to Cong Thanh to provide more information on the above incident...

After nearly half a year, we returned to Dong Cay Dua Stadium in Cong Thanh Commune, and nothing had changed. The illegal construction on public land initiated by parish priest Tran Van Phuc had yet to be dismantled.

The illegally built house on Dong Cay Dua Stadium (Cong Thanh - Yen Thanh) has not been demolished yet.

This is the land that the people voluntarily returned to the state to build a stadium according to the planning of the local government with the purpose of serving the sports complex of 4 hamlets Ru, Dong Rao, Ngoc Thuong and Long Tien. At the northwest corner, the 4-room, 5-room house, 15 m long and 6 m wide, still exists openly and has not been demolished. Even in the new stadium, 5 trees have "grown" including 1 royal poinciana tree; 3 coconut trees 3 m high, 1 banyan tree about 3.5 m high. All of them are like a challenge, encroachment.

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Tien Loi - Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee said: After the incident, along with the record of administrative violations, forcing the demolition of the construction and restoration of the original state for the Pastoral Council of Ngoc Long Parish (Decision No. 64/QD.UBND dated May 26, 2011). Cong Thanh Commune People's Committee in particular, and the departments, branches and organizations of Yen Thanh District in general, have persistently and actively organized propaganda, mobilization and explanation so that the parish priest can clearly understand the violations of the law, comply with the handling decisions of the local authorities, and voluntarily dismantle the illegal constructions. Everything seemed to be resolved when on October 3, 2011, parish priest Tran Van Phuc proactively proposed to work with Mr. Nguyen Tien Loi - Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee.

During the meeting the following day, Father Tran Van Phuc promised to organize the demolition of the 5-room house within 15 days (from October 3, 2011) and leave the fence. However, up to this point, Father Tran Van Phuc has not only failed to fulfill his commitment but has also made the situation more complicated by taking advantage of preaching to incite parishioners to not cooperate with the government.

At the Parish Church, there was a dissemination of documents with bad content, distorting the truth, dividing the great national unity, creating bad public opinion and affecting the security and order situation of the locality. Not only disregarding discipline and the law, Priest Tran Van Phuc also ignored the direction to cooperate with the local government to resolve the matter of Mr. Nguyen Thai Hop - Bishop of Vinh Diocese, deliberately pushing the responsibility to the people, saying that it was the work of the parishioners, so the parishioners should resolve it themselves? Here, it is necessary to remind Father Phuc that in the response document dated June 27, 2011 signed by parish priest Tran Van Phuc in response to the announcement of Conclusion No. 151/TB-UBND of the Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee dated June 14, 2011, he affirmed: "On my personal side, I confirm that I am the one responsible to the parishioners and the previous priest for the entire incident. The Parish Council is only the one who helped and supported me in my work." Father Phuc's actions not only violated the law but also violated the 10 commandments of God, affecting the image of the Catholic Church. In Article 7, God taught: "Do not covet other people's property" but Mr. Phuc directed the occupation of public land and illegal construction.

Article 8 of the Catholic Church's commandment: "Do not bear false witness or conceal falsehood", but Mr. Phuc has been inconsistent in his actions. First, he admitted that he was the "responsible" person, promising to dismantle it within 15 days, then he pushed the responsibility onto the parishioners, the priest and the Pastoral Council have no right to intervene. I think that as a shepherd of the souls of the flock, and well-trained (graduated from the University of Foreign Languages ​​in Da Nang, studied at Van Hanh Seminary (Ha Tinh) and Vinh Thanh Major Seminary (Nghi Dien, Nghi Loc, Nghe An), with intelligence and knowledge, Father Tran Van Phuc must understand better than anyone that "do not use the name of God to do mundane, trivial things" as well as the rights and obligations of citizens before the law. From there, he leads the parishioners to actively cooperate with the government to overcome and correct mistakes.

However, on the contrary, after a long period of deliberately opposing and showing many signs of defiance, ignoring the goodwill of the government, suddenly on December 1, 2011, Priest Tran Van Phuc submitted a petition to the People's Committee of Nghe An province asking for "legalization of the right to manage and use the Dong Cay Dua football field", with a promise (although he had broken the promise many times): "If the government approves, we will effectively use this football field and not build any religious structures on it". Regarding the level 4 house built on the football field area, "If the government insists on forcing us to dismantle it after receiving the provincial government's decision on the right to manage and use this football field, we will dismantle it".

This is an unreasonable request and contrary to the provisions of the law, because of course public works always belong to the people within the framework of the law, whose sole representative is the State government (here directly the Cong Thanh commune government) and cannot be assigned to any organization or individual.

In response to this unreasonable and illegal request, on December 17, 2011, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 8022/UBND-NC signed by Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Van Hang as follows (hereby quote the original content):

"1. The Provincial People's Committee always respects and ensures the freedom of belief, places of worship and religious needs of the people. In particular, Ngoc Long Parish has been granted land by the government, built a spacious church, and religious activities have become stable. All legitimate and legal religious needs have been resolved by the government.

According to the people's wishes, in 2007, the Executive Committee of 4 hamlets (Ngoc Thuong, Long Tien, Dong Rao, Ru) of Cong Thanh commune submitted a request to the People's Committee of Cong Thanh commune and the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district for permission to build a sports complex in the Dong Cay Dua area. Considering the request of the People's Committee of Cong Thanh commune and the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district on November 8, 2007, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Decision No. 4521/QD-UBND-CN on approving the selection of locations to build sports complexes of the above 4 hamlets. On December 31, 2007, the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district issued Decision No. 6479/QD-UBND to reclaim an area of ​​5,805m2 of agricultural land from 27 households (allocated agricultural land by the State according to Decree 64/CP) in Cong Thanh commune to build a sports complex of 4 hamlets. The People's Committee of Cong Thanh commune, with the contribution of the people in the commune, has organized the leveling of the ground and put the project into normal operation according to the provisions of law and the operating regulations of the sports field approved by the People's Committee of Cong Thanh commune in Decision No. 08/QD-UBND dated December 25, 2007. The Dong Cay Dua land was recovered by the State to build a sports complex to serve the cultural, physical education and sports needs of the people of Cong Thanh commune and has been used stably up to now (it is strictly forbidden to convert to other purposes), therefore, the Provincial People's Committee does not consider the legalization of the right to manage and use the above land as proposed by the parish priest of Ngoc Long.

2. Land is owned by the State, the State assigns the right to manage and use the land to organizations and individuals. The above land was recovered by the State from agricultural land of households (households voluntarily returned the land) and a football field was built to serve the common needs of the people. The claim of the parish priest Ngoc Long that the land of Dong Cay Dua Sports Complex was donated by the people to the Parish is baseless and contrary to the State's land law.

3. Recently, some parishioners of Ngoc Long parish under the direction of Father Tran Van Phuc have illegally occupied land and built structures on the land of the 4-hamlet sports cluster, which is a violation of the Land Law and the Construction Law and must be strictly handled. Request the parish priest of Ngoc Long parish to direct the dismantling of the illegal constructions that parishioners have built on the land of the 4-hamlet sports cluster in the Dong Cay Dua area (Cong Thanh commune).

4. Priest Tran Van Phuc's actions of inciting parishioners to arbitrarily occupy land, build illegal structures, not cooperate, and challenge the government are a disregard for the law, creating negative public opinion, affecting local security and order, and the reputation and image of the Church. Priest Tran Van Phuc broke his promise to the government, did not comply with the law, and did not obey Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop, even though the Bishop had requested the Church to voluntarily dismantle the illegal structures at the Dong Cay Dua sports complex and had been approved by the Provincial People's Committee at the meeting on November 19, 2011. The Provincial People's Committee requested Priest Tran Van Phuc to strictly comply with the provisions of the law, instruct parishioners to voluntarily dismantle the illegal structures at the above-mentioned land, and return the original state for the government to manage according to the provisions of the law."

Thus, the viewpoint of the People's Committee of Nghe An province is decisive and clear, because if any citizen or organization arbitrarily occupies public land and then builds illegal constructions, where will discipline, law and social order go? And the hesitation in not organizing the self-demolition of illegal constructions as promised by Father Tran Van Phuc, causing the violation to last and causing a complicated situation, should be considered as a deliberate act against the law, going against the rights and obligations of citizens. And the person responsible for this incident is none other than the parish priest Tran Van Phuc.

(continued)

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