Facts:
Lots Nos. 568 and 569, located at Barrio Dampol, Plaridel, Bulacan, with
an area of 313 square meters and an assessed value of P1,350 were acquired by INC
on January 9, 1953 from Andres Perez in exchange for a lot with an area of 247
square meters owned by the said church.
The said lots were already possessed by Perez in 1933. They are not
included in any military reservation. They are inside an area which was
certified as alienable or disposable by the Bureau of Forestry in 1927. The
lots are planted to santol and mango trees and banana plants. A chapel exists
on the said land. The land had been declared for realty tax purposes. Realty
taxes had been paid therefor.
On September 13, 1977, INC filed with the CFI
Bulacan an application for the registration of the two lots. It alleged that it
and its predecessors-in-interest had possessed the land for more than thirty
years.
The trial court ordered the registration of
the two lots.
Issue:
Whether
or not the trial court erred in ordering the registration of two lots.
Held:
Section 11, Article XIV of the Constitution stated that "no private corporation or association may hold alienable lands of
the public domain except by lease not to exceed one thousand hectares in
area".
INC,
as a corporation sole or a juridical person, is disqualified to acquire or hold
alienable lands of the public domain, like the two lots in question, because of
the constitutional prohibition already mentioned and because the said church is
not entitled to avail itself of the benefits of section 48(b) which applies
only to Filipino citizens or natural persons. A corporation sole has no
nationality (Roman Catholic Apostolic Adm. of Davao, Inc. vs. Land Registration
Commission, 102 Phil. 596. See Register of Deeds vs. Ung Siu Si Temple, 97
Phil. 58 and sec. 49 of the Public Land Law).
The
contention in the comments of the INC that the two lots are private lands,
following the rule laid down in Susi vs. Razon and Director of Lands, 48 Phil.
424, is not correct. What was considered private land in the Susi case was a
parcel of land possessed by a Filipino citizen since time immemorial, as in
CariƱo vs. Insular Government, 212 U.S. 449, 53 L. ed. 594, 41 Phil. 935 and 7
Phil. 132. The lots sought to be registered in this case do not fall within
that category. They are still public lands. A land registration proceeding
under section 48(b) "presupposes that the land is public" (Mindanao
vs. Director of Lands, L-19535, July 10, 1967, 20 SCRA 641, 644).
As
held in Oh Cho vs. Director of Lands, 75 Phil. 890, "all lands that were
not acquired from the Government, either by purchase or by grant, belong to the
public domain. An exception to the rule would be any land that should have been
in the possession of an occupant and of his predecessors-in-interest since time
immemorial, for such possession would justify the presumption that the land had
never been part of the public domain or that it had been a private property
even before the Spanish conquest."
In
Uy Un vs. Perez, 71 Phil. 508, it was noted that the right of an occupant of
public agricultural land to obtain a confirmation of his title under section
48(b) of the Public Land Law is a "derecho dominical incoativo" and
that before the issuance of the certificate of title the occupant is not in the
juridical sense the true owner of the land since it still pertains to the
State.
The
lower court's judgment is reversed and set aside. The application for
registration of INC is dismissed with costs against said applicant.
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