23 December 2008
FACTS:
On 21 November 1996,
respondents, who are the heirs of Juan Fabio, represented by Angelita F.
Esteibar (Esteibar) as their Attorney-in-Fact, filed with the Regional Trial
Court of Naic, Cavite, an application for registration of title to a lot. The
respondents sought the registration of title under the provisions of Act No.
496 or the Land Registration Act, as amended by Presidential Decree No. 1529
(PD 1529).
In the application,
respondents alleged that they are the owners of the Lot, including all the
improvements, having acquired the same through a bona fide claim of
ownership. They declared that they and their predecessors-in-interest were in
open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession of the Lot in the concept
of an owner for more than 100 years. They have also submitted several documents
to support their claim of ownership. RTC rendered a decision ordering the
registration of the lot in the name of Juan Fabio.
Upon appeal to the CA, the
Republic on its part, claimed that the trial court erred in ruling that
respondents have acquired a vested right over the lot. According to one of the
witnesses in the trial, the survey plan submitted by the respondents contained
a notation which states that “this
survey falls within the Calumpang Point Naval Reservation and disposition
hereof shall be subject to the final delimitation thereof as per Proc. No.
1582-A dated September 6, 1976.”, however, the CA still affirmed the
decision of the RTC. Hence, this petition.
RULING:
The
letter-certification submitted by the respondents stating that the subject land
is alienable and disposable is insufficient. Conlu is merely a land
investigator of the DENR. It is not enough that he alone should certify that
the Lot is within the alienable and disposable zone. Under Section 6 of the
Public Land Act, the prerogative of classifying or reclassifying lands of the
public domain belongs to the President. The President, through a presidential
proclamation or executive order, can classify or reclassify a land to be
included or excluded from the public domain. The DENR Secretary is the only
other public official empowered by law to approve a land classification and
declare such land as alienable and disposable.
Consequently, respondents
could not have occupied the Lot in the concept of an owner in 1947 and
subsequent years when respondents declared the Lot for taxation purposes, or
even earlier when respondents’ predecessors-in- interest possessed the Lot,
because the Lot was considered inalienable from the time of its declaration as
a military reservation in 1904. Therefore, respondents failed to prove, by
clear and convincing evidence, that the Lot is alienable and disposable.
In view of the lack of
sufficient evidence showing that the Lot was already classified as alienable
and disposable, the Lot applied for by respondents is inalienable land of the
public domain, not subject to registration under Section 14(1) of PD 1529 and
Section 48(b) of CA 141, as amended by PD 1073. Hence, there is no need to
discuss the other requisites dealing with respondents’ occupation and
possession of the Lot in the concept of an owner.
DOCTRINES:
Under
the Regalian doctrine embodied in our Constitution, land that has not been
acquired from the government, either by purchase, grant or any other mode
recognized by law, belongs to the State as part of the public domain
Under
Section 6 of the Public Land Act, the prerogative of classifying or
reclassifying lands of the public domain belongs to the President, The
President, through a presidential proclamation or executive order, can classify
or reclassify a land to be included or excluded from the public domain; The
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary is the only
other public official empowered by law to approve a land classification and
declare such land as alienable and disposable
Well-entrenched
is the rule that unless a land is reclassified and declared alienable and
disposable, occupation in the concept of an owner, no matter how long, cannot
ripen into ownership and be registered as a title; public lands not shown to
have been classified as alienable and disposable land remain part of the
inalienable public domain.