Palomo vs.

CA

Facts:
Diego Palomo is the owner of 15 parcels of land covered by Executive Order No.
40. On 1916, he ordered the registration of these lands and donated the same to his
heirs, Ignacio and Carmen Palomo two months before his death in April 1937. Claiming
that the aforesaid original certificates of title were lost during the Japanese occupation,
Ignacio Palomo filed a petition for reconstitution with the CFI of Albay on May 1970, in
which the Register of Deeds issued TCTs to them. However, sometime in July 1954
President Ramon Magsaysay issued Proclamation No. 47 converting the area
embraced by Executive Order No. 40 into the “Tiwi Hot Spring National Park” under the
control of Bureau of Forest Development. Later on, petitioner de Buenaventura and
spouses Palomo and Pascual mortgage the parcels of land to guarantee a loan of
P200,000 from the BPI.

Issue:
Whether or not a forest land may be owned by private persons.

Ruling:
The adverse possession which may be the basis of a grant of title in confirmation
of imperfect title cases applies only to alienable lands of the public domain. It is in the
law governing natural resources that forest land cannot be owned by private persons. It
is not registerable and possession thereof, no matter how lengthy, cannot convert it into
private property, unless such lands are reclassified and considered disposable and
alienable. There is no question that the lots here forming part of the forest zone were
not alienable lands of the public domain. As to the forfeiture of improvements introduced
by petitioners, the fact that the government failed to oppose the registration of the lots in
question is no justification for petitioners to plead good faith in introducing
improvements on the lots.