Land Titles

Emancipation patent - alienable and disposable lands converted to private

- when registered to the RD, basis of issuance of
torrens title, that is if the subject matter is an
unregistered land
Transformation of Unregistered Land
- - abandoned river beds: land owner who's land is
2 Administrative Processes Result in a shortcut
- addressed in PD1529
- scope of processes of registering lands in the torrens
system
Registration of Titles to Land
System of registration of titles to land
Courts vested by Law to Undergo such proceedings
lands because of OCEN since june 12, 1945 or
earlier
- possession or occupation
- lands acquired by prescription
- only private lands
already covered by the river bed, ownership of
abandoned river bed must also follow a process
- accretion
- accession
- LANDS: ex. legislature can make a law that will
transfer areas of a forest over a specific entity
- case of reclamation: reclaimed lands
OCEN - Open, continuous, exclusive, notorious
Imprescriptibility of title

Change in Sec. 2 PD 1529 vs. the old one ACME case

- and overall petitions filed after registration
One must be already an owner of the land before one
applies to such registration.
Identify registrable and non-registrable lands
- serves as transition point to the next module
Land can be either public or private lands
- conclusion of numerous cases
- if land has been transformed to private land by
reason of compliance of requirements, if
4 types of private lands - only these are registrable
Lands can now be classified as registrable or non-
registrable

Cario vs. Insular Government Registrable

- asserted validity of native titles - judicial
- ordinary
Public Land Act Defines public lands - agricultural
- mineral: non-registrable - patent from land management bureau
- forests: non-registrable - grant
- alienable or disposable - BOTH: Sec 103 - Certificate of title
- agricultural - cadastral
- can be subject to ownership through judicial - both will go to trial
confirmation of imperfect titles: convert it to - judgment
private lands - appeal
- Sec. 48(b): reference to a subset of lands that - reach finality
can be the subject matter of registration of - decree: certificate of title
imperfect titles - administrative
- administrative legalization - agricultural
- patents - patent
- sales - grant
- homestead - sec 103
- free - certificate of title
- others Any agricultural land held in excess of allowable limit
- grants - may be obtained by the government
- others - direct sale to qualified agrarian reform
- Reserved for specific purposes beneficiary
- ETC. - purchase by government outright
- may continue to have them on their own
Issuing land titles to mineral and forest lands will be
null and void. Three instances where award from the government
result in the issuance of torrens title registration
Private Lands
Land Titles
Only after registration in sec. 103 and 104, will it be
binding against the whole world.
Cadastral proceedings
- ends thru adjudication
- whoever is declared the owner of the land, has to be
regarded as owner of the land FOREVER (res
judicata)
- compared to an ordinary land proceedings, it is only
confirmatory (not res judicata)
- may file a case again once you have sufficient
evidence
Communal ownership is not necessarily co-ownerhsip
Co-ownership under CC may be diveded anytime
August 26
Land can only be registered once. Second registration
will be a patent nullity. It will never attain validity as
compared to the first.
Case of Nieto
- decree of registration coinciding with the issuance
of certificate of title pursuant to a patent
- a decree of registration binds the land and quotes the
title
- from that moment onwards it cant be subject to
claims of nay other person
Nature of Torrens system of Registration
- Choice made by legislators in favor of torrens
system compared to all others which were abolished
- henceforth spanish title is no longer admissible as
evidence in courts
- any lands covered by a mere spanish title is a mere
Land grabbing can take place where someone is taking
hold of the land
Cadastral proceedings - designed to compel them to
file an answer
In the nature of a cadastral proceedings there is always
a winner
ACTUAL, EXTRINSIC, COLLATERAL FRAUD
- frauduelent acts that take place outside of the case
resulting in
- if an adjacent lot owner is not included in the
proceedings, he will not be included in the trial to
fight for his right
IDENTIFICATION OF ACTUAL OCCUPUANTS
AND ADJACENT OWNERS
actual occupants - most likely him
adjacent land owners - give opportunity to have right
to the land
SEC 32. Petition to review or revise decree registration
- single ground: actual fraud
- may file for petition to review/revise from 1 year of
registration
- if successful -> final -> degree of registration
- BUT if he failed to inform someone like an adjacent
lot owner, the latter has a right to file a petition for
review/revise
WHERE AND WHEN THE CASE SHOULD BE
FILED
Sec. 17 addresses issue
Jurisdiction of RTC - determine scope/extent of
territory
when PD1529 was enacted in 1978, two years away
from creation of judiciary
The supreme court may dileanate area over which RTC
may exercise jurisdiction
When application is not contested..
When did it happen that the act was activated
RA7691 - Congress amended Sec. 34 of Judiciary act
but its almost the same
if you have a case that is uncontested
1. SC must first delegate jurisdiction
2. First level courts will determine whether they can
act if
- filed in RTC but uncontested, may be referred in
first level courts
- even at the time of filing, as long as the
jurisdictional amounts are within the range the
courts provide
- even if the amount exceeds jurisdictional amount, it
being uncontested prevails
- being uncontested, the court may hear the case but
RTC has option to delegate it
until you have arrived at the date of hearing, you can't
delegate to lower courts
SC Circular - can only unload ORIGINAL registration
back to sec. 17 :)
APPLICATION
- where? RTC where land is situated
- must be accompanied by muniments (evidence) and
monuments of tile
- ex. deed of sale
Land Titles

- must be accompanied by a survey plan Publication - notice of initial hearing to be posted:

- with technical description once in official gazette once in newspaper of regular
circulation
Survey plan - technical description of the area
- in the form of numbers Entity that posts publication: Land registration
commission
the moment is application is filed, the law requires for
it to be acted upon Commissioner of Land Registration: it is him who
- court may issue a notice of hearing within 5 days would cause publication of notice of hearing
- schedule: no more than 45 days
Mere publication in official gazette is SUFFICIENT
must be accompanied by proof of prior survey
Notice of initial hearing: to whom it may concern
AMENDEMENTS shows in rem character: binding against the whole
- after filing appliction, if you need to revise/improve world
it All persons in court should appear
- may include
- joinder of parties DATE OF INITIAL HEARING
- discontinuance of parties - several aspects
- where it consists of substantial ones, it requires RE-
PUBLICATION Case of Sotto vs. Teves
- ex. land is enlarged identifies requisites of valid repudiation of trusts

case of Benign vs. Tuazon

- one of such cases where large parcel of land was
increased
- if held invalid, only to that portion
- a part of the land was reduced, but it did not require
publication because it was minimal

In the course of the land registration proceedings, there

can be dealings regarding the land subject
- the problem will be where to register it for it to be
binding to the whole world

Sec 3 PD1529

National grains authority vs. IAC

- decided to sell land
- register under act 3334
- no compliance with the law
- relevant provision: sec 22
WHAT FOLLOWS ARE YOU FILE IN COURT
assuming it is complete

Section 23. Notice of initial hearing, publication, etc.

The court shall, within five days from filing of the
application, issue an order setting the date and hour of
the initial hearing which shall not be earlier than forty-
five days nor later than ninety days from the date of the
order.

Mailing - applies to SPECIFIC persons mentioned in

the law itself or to actual occupants or adjacent land
owners