SECTION 14.

WHO MAY APPLY

Step No. 2. Application

a) Who may apply
b) Based on the previous and present laws and jurisprudence
c) Equation to determine eligibility to apply for original registration of title to land.

SECTION 14(1)
1. Laws and Basic Concepts.
a. Laws governing public land
b. Land of the public domain as distinguished from private land
c. Area and period to file application for judicial registration

2. Requisites to avail of the confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles under Section 14(1).

3. Meaning of Section 14(1) of P.D. 1529.

A) First Requisite: Applicant must be a Filipino Citizen (under the 1987 Constitution)
a) Who are Filipino Citizens?
b) Only “natural person” who is a citizen of the Philippines and not “juridical person” can
apply for original registration of title to land
c) The rationale behind the Constitutional Ban
d) Foreigners, both natural and juridical, are prohibited to own land whether public and
private lands or to apply for original registration
e) EXCEPTIONS to the rule that foreigners cannot acquire lands or cannot apply for
original registration of title to the land
B) Second Requisite: The subject land is alienable and disposable land of the public domain
1) The land must be declared alienable and disposable at least at the time of the filing of
the application for registration. Section 14(1) does not require that an agricultural land be
declared alienable and disposable on June 12, 1945 or earlier. It is the possession and
occupation that must start on June 12, 1945 or earlier.
2) Meaning of “alienable and disposable land of the public domain.”
3) The imperfect or incomplete title to the land under Section 14(1) is acquired the
moment the land is declared alienable and disposable without the need for the declaration that
the said land is a patrimonial land.
4) The applicant must prove that the land is alienable and disposable by presenting
evidence.
5) Authority to classify public lands rests on the Executive Department.
C. Third Requisite: Such possession and occupation must have been open, continuous,
exclusive, notorious under the bona fide claim of ownership since June 12, 1945 or earlier.
1) Meaning of open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation
2) Possession must be under the bona fide claim of ownership.
3) Possession and occupation under Section 14(1) must start on June 12, 1945 or earlier.
4) The period of possession and occupation of agricultural land prior to the date when the
property was declared alienable and disposable should be included in the computation to
determine the compliance of the period of possession.
5) The 30-year period of possession under R.A. No. 1942 which took effect on June 22,
1957, also grants the occupant an imperfect and incomplete title.
6) Distinction between the 30-year period of possession” that creates imperfect and
incomplete title (Under R.A. No. 1942, amended C.A. No. 141) and the “30-year period of
possession” that creates prescription under Section 14(2) of P.D. No. 1529.
7) Tacking of possession to the possession of the predecessor.
a) Meaning/concept of tacking of possession.
b) Requisites for tacking the possession of the predecessor-in-interest:
1) Land must be alienable or disposable land.
2) There must be privity of contract between the previous and present
possessors.
 8) Tax receipt and Tax declaration may be used as evidence to show actual or
constructive possession.
9) Effect of compliance of the requirements for a grant.
D) Fourth Requisite: The application must be filed with the proper court.
1) Jurisdiction
2) Venue

SECTION 14(2)
4. Meaning of Section 14(2) of P.D. No. 1529.
1) Concept and meaning of prescription
2) Requisites to avail of Section 14(2) of P.D. No. 1529
3) Adverse possession of disposable land even after June 12, 1945 for at least 30 years from the
time it was declared patrimonial land coverts the land into a private land by operation of law
based on prescription under Section 14(2) of P.D. No. 1529.
4) The accretion to a titled land may be acquired through prescription.
5) Lands registered under the Spanish Mortgage Law but not covered by a certificate of title at
the time of the issuance of P.D. No. 1529 are subject of prescription.
6) Computation of the period of Prescription.
7) Possession may be interrupted for purposes of prescription.
8) Acquisitive prescription distinguished from extinctive prescription.

SECTION 14(3)
5. Meaning of Section 14(3) of P.D. No. 1529.
a) Ownership of abandoned river beds by right of accession.
b) Ownership of accretion in river banks.
c) Accretion caused by creeks, streams, rivers and lakes belongs to the riparian owner
d) Accretion must be registered to perfect ownership.
e) The rule that accretion or alluvion belongs to the riparian owner does not apply if it is due to
man’s intervention.
f) Accretion used by sea is part of the public domain.
g) Part of the pond or lagoon left dry or lands inundated by extraordinary flood.

SECTION 14(4)
6. Meaning of Section 14(4), P.D. No. 1529.
Other modes of acquiring ownership

7. Meaning of Section 14 which provides that – “Where the land is owned in common, all the co-
owners shall file the application jointly.”

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS ACT

(Republic Act No. 8371 approved on October 29, 1997)
a) Meaning and concept
b) National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and its functions in relation to ancestral domains
and lands.
c) Rights of the ICCs/IPs to their ancestral lands.
d) Claims, issuance of title and registration.
e) Individual members of cultural communities with respect to individually-owned ancestral land have the
option to secure title to ancestral lands under C.A. No. 141.
f) Reconveyance of fraudulently transferred ancestral lands.
g) All unappropriated agricultural lands of the public domain are part of ancestral lands of the indigenous
cultural groups occupying the same.