Phu Quoc to raze 79 illegal villas

Kien Giang vice chairman Le Quoc Anh said Monday procedures are being completed for the demolition.

The villas, all of them in Duong To Commune, have a floor area of 200-350 sq.m.

Anh said a task force would visit the island to penalize the developers of the villas and instruct them to restore the places to their old state.

The demolition move comes as the Sep. 30 deadline for the developers to furnish documents proving title to the lands and construction permits for the villas has passed without any of them doing so.

The 79 villas began to be built four years ago when Phu Quoc property prices skyrocketed.

The developers reportedly took advantage of the social distancing restrictions during Covid-19 in the last two years to complete construction.

Local authorities claim they had summoned them several times to deliver warnings, but the developers simply ignored them.

Anh said the province administration would appraise the responsibility of the Phu Quoc administration and other agencies after repossessing the lands.

In the last three months the task force carried out inspections of encroachments on public and forest lands, which have for long caused public anger.

As a result nearly 140 hectares of forest land that were illegally occupied have been recovered and nearly 40 tourism projects were detected encroaching on a marine protected area.

Investigations have begun into 11 cases, and the Phu Quoc forest rangers have slapped fines of nearly VND1.5 billion (US$63,200).