Legal personality

To have legal personality means to be capable of having legal rights and duties within a certain legal
system, such as to enter into contracts, sue, and be sued. Legal personality is a prerequisite to legal
capacity, the ability of any legal person to amend rights and obligations. Legal persons are of two kinds:
natural persons – people – and judicial persons – groups of people, such as corporations, which are
treated by law as if they were persons. While people acquire legal personhood when they are born,
judicial persons do so when they are incorporated in accordance with law.

Juridical Personality

Entity (such as a firm) other than a natural person (human being) created by law and recognized as a
legal entity having distinct identity, legal personality, and duties and rights. Also called artificial person,
juridical entity, juristic person, or legal person.

Public Corporation

Public corporations are those formed or organized for the government of a portion of the state. Private
corporations are those formed for some private purpose, benefit, aim, or end, as distinguished from
public corporations, which have for their purpose the general good and welfare. Private corporations
are divided into stock corporations and nonstock corporations. Corporations which have a capital stock
divided into shares and are authorized to distribute to the holders of such shares dividends or
allotments of the surplus profits on the basis of the shares held are stock corporations. All other private
corporations are nonstock corporations.

"Public corporation" means an entity that is created by the state to carry out public missions and
services. In order to carry out these public missions and services, a public corporation participates in
activities or provides services that are also provided by private enterprise. A public corporation is
granted increased operating flexibility in order to best ensure its success, while retaining principles of
public accountability and fundamental public policy. The board of directors of a public corporation is
appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate but is otherwise delegated the authority to set
policy and managethe operations of the public corporation.

Public corporation" includes any city, county or district organized for public purposes.

Political Subdivision

POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS are local governments created by the states to help fulfill their obligations.
Political subdivisions include counties, cities, towns, villages, and special districts such as school districts,
water districts, park districts, and airport districts.

A political division is a geographic region accepted to be in the jurisdiction of a

particular government entity. The particular government entity varies as each organizes its
operations by further divisions (subdivisions of the state) to further its tasks and satisfy its
responsibilities.
The term “political subdivision,” for purposes of this section denotes any division of any State or local
government unit which is a municipal corporation or which has been delegated the right to exercise part
of the sovereign power of the unit.

Friar Lands
> Were purchased by the government for sale to actual occupants under the provisions of Act 1120 or
the Friar Lands Act
> These lands are not public lands but private and patrimonial lands of the government
> The Land Management Bureau shall first issue a certificate stating therein that the government has
agreed to sell the land to such settler or occupant
> The latter shall then accept the certificate and agree to pay the purchase price so fixed, in installments
and at the rate of interest specified in the certificate
> The conveyance or certificate of sale executed in favor of a buyer is a conveyance of ownership of the
property, subject only to the resolutory condition that the sale may be cancelled if the price agreed
upon is not paid in full

The Regalian Doctrine

The Regalian Doctrine, also known as “jura regalia”, is a fiction of Spanish colonial law that has been said
to apply to all Spanish colonial holdings. More specifically, the Regalian Doctrine refers to the feudal
principle that private title to land must emanate, directly or indirectly, from the Spanish crown with the
latter retaining the underlying title. Lands and resources not granted by the Crown remain part of the
public domain over which none but the sovereign holds rights. Generally, under this concept, private
title to land must be traced to some grant, express or implied, from the Spanish Crown or its successors,
the American Colonial Government, and thereafter, the Philippine Republic. In a broad sense, the term
refers to royal rights, or those rights to which the King has by virtue of his prerogatives.

The Regalian Doctrine dictates that all lands of the public domain belong to the State, that the State is
the source of any asserted right to ownership of land and charged with the conservation of such
patrimony. The doctrine has been consistently adopted under the 1935, 1973, and 1987 Constitutions.
All lands not otherwise appearing to be clearly within private ownership are presumed to belong to the
State. Thus, all lands that have not been acquired from the government, either by purchase or by grant,
belong to the State as part of the inalienable public domain. Necessarily, it is up to the State to
determine if lands of the public domain will be disposed of for private ownership. The government, as
the agent of the state, is possessed of the plenary power as the persona in law to determine who shall
be the favored recipients of public lands, as well as under what terms they may be granted such
privilege, not excluding the placing of obstacles in the way of their exercise of what otherwise would be
ordinary acts of ownership.

Navigable Rivers

Streams or lakes are referred to as “navigable in fact” when they are used in their ordinary condition as
highways for commerce. In order to qualify as navigable in fact, a waterway must provide practical
utility to the public. It must serve as a means of transportation.
Rivers that are navigable in fact are considered public navigable rivers. And they are navigable in fact
when they are used, or are susceptible of being used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for
commerce, over which trade and travel are or may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and
travel on water. [Daniel Ball, 77 U.S. 557, 563 (U.S. 1871)].