To prove that the land subject of an application for
Secretary of DENR vs Yap registration is alienable, the applicant must establish the Natural Resources and Environmental Laws: Regalian existence of a positive act of the government such as a Doctrine presidential proclamation or an executive order, an administrative action, investigative reports of the Bureau of GR No. 167707; Oct 8, 2008 Lands investigators, and a legislative act or statute. A positive act declaring land as alienable and disposable is required. In keeping with the presumption of state FACTS: ownership, the Court has time and again emphasized that This petition is for a review on certiorari of the decision of there must be a positive act of the government, such as an the Court of Appeals (CA) affirming that of the Regional official proclamation, declassifying inalienable public land Trial Court (RTC) in Kalibo Aklan, which granted the into disposable land for agricultural or other purposes. petition for declaratory relief filed by respondents-claimants The Regalian Doctrine dictates that all lands of the public Mayor Jose Yap et al, and ordered the survey of Boracay for domain belong to the State, that the State is the source of titling purposes. any asserted right to ownership of land and charged with On Nov. 10, 1978, President Marcos issued Proclamation the conservation of such patrimony. No. 1801 declaring Boracay Island as a tourist zone and marine reserve. Claiming that Proc. No. 1801 precluded All lands not otherwise appearing to be clearly within them from filing an application for a judicial confirmation private ownership are presumed to belong to the State. of imperfect title or survey of land for titling purposes, Thus, all lands that have not been acquired from the respondents-claimants filed a petition for declaratory relief government, either by purchase or by grant, belong to the with the RTC in Kalibo, Aklan. State as part of the inalienable public domain. The Republic, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) opposed the petition countering that Boracay Island was an unclassified land of the public domain. It formed part of the mass of lands classified as “public forest,” which was not available for disposition pursuant to section 3(a) of PD No. 705 or the Revised Forestry Code.
ISSUE: Whether unclassified lands of the public domain are automatically deemed agricultural land, therefore making these lands alienable.