8/6/2020 PUBLIC LAND ACT (C.A. NO.

141) | Case Index

PUBLIC LAND ACT (C.A. NO. 141)

Administrative legalization or grant of free patent — The grant of free patents is governed by Sec. 44,
paragraph 1 of the Public Land Act, as amended by R.A. No. 6940; requisites: (1) the applicant must be a
natural-born citizen of the Philippines; (2) the applicant must not own more than 12 hectares of land; (3) the
applicant or his or her predecessors-in-interest must have continuously occupied and cultivated the land; (4)
the continuous occupation and cultivation must be for a period of at least 30 years before April 15, 1990,
which is the date of effectivity of R.A. No. 6940; and (5) payment of real estate taxes on the land while it
has not been occupied by other persons. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Alienable land — An applicant is not necessarily entitled to have the land registered under the Torrens
system simply because no one appears to oppose his title and to oppose the registration of his land; he must
show, even though there is no opposition to the satisfaction of the court, that he is the absolute owner, in fee
simple. (Diaz-Enriquez vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

Application for land registration — A mere invocation of “private rights” does not automatically entitle an
applicant to have the property registered in his name; persons claiming the protection of private rights in
order to exclude their lands from military reservations must show by clear and convincing evidence that the
pieces of property in question have been acquired by a legal method of acquiring public lands. (Diaz-Enriquez
vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

— The necessary requirements for the grant of an application for land registration are the following: 1)
the applicant must, by himself or through his predecessors-in-interest, have been in possession and
occupation of the subject land; 2) the possession and occupation must be open, continuous, exclusive, and
notorious; 3) the possession and occupation must be under a bona fide claim of ownership for at least thirty
years immediately preceding the filing of the application; and 4) the subject land must be an agricultural
land of the public domain. (Diaz-Enriquez vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

Application of — If the State alleges that lands belong to it, it is not excused from providing evidence to
support this allegation; this specially applies when the land in question has no indication of being incapable
of registration and has been exclusively occupied by an applicant or his or her predecessor-in-interest
without opposition-not even from the State; when a land has been in the possession of the applicants and
their predecessor-in-interest since time immemorial and there is no manifest indication that it is
unregistrable, it is upon the State to demonstrate that the land is not alienable and disposable. (Rep. of the
Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

— Payment of taxes is not conclusive evidence of ownership; however, it is good indicia of possession in
the concept of an owner, and when coupled with continuous possession, it constitutes strong evidence of
title. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

— Public lands may be disposed of through confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles; confirmation of
title may be done judicially or through the issuance of a free patent; when a person applies for judicial
confirmation of title, he or she already holds an incomplete or imperfect title over the property being applied
for, after having been in open, continuous, exclusive, and notorious possession and occupation from June 12,
1945 or earlier; the date “June 12, 1945” is the reckoning date of the applicant’s possession and occupation,
and not the reckoning date of when the property was classified as alienable and disposable. (Rep. of the
Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

— Secs. 6 and 7 thereof provides that the President, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of
Agriculture and Commerce, shall from time to time classify the lands of the public domain into; (a) alienable
or disposable; (b) timber; and (c) mineral lands and mayat any time and in a like manner transfer such
lands from one class to another, for the purposes of their administration and disposition; for the purposes
of the administration and disposition of alienable or disposable public lands, the President, upon
recommendation by the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, shall from time to time declare what lands

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are open to disposition or concession under this Act. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Heirs of Meynardo Cabrera, G.R.
No. 218418, Nov. 08, 2017)

— The burden of proving that the property is an alienable and disposable agricultural land of the public
domain falls on the applicant, not the State; the Office of the Solicitor General, however, has the correlative
burden to present effective evidence of the public character of the land; in order to establish that an
agricultural land of the public domain has become alienable and disposable, an applicant must establish the
existence of a positive act of the government such as a presidential proclamation or an executive order; an
administrative action; investigation reports of Bureau of Lands investigators; and a legislative act or a
statute. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

— The 1987 Constitution classifies lands of the public domain into five (5) categories; forest lands,
agricultural lands, timber lands, mineral lands, and national parks; in the absence of any prior classification
by the State, unclassified lands of the public domain assume the category of forest lands not open to
disposition; in turn, the classification of unclassified lands of the public domain, and the reclassification of
those previously classified under any of the categories set forth in the 1987 Constitution are governed by
Commonwealth Act No. 141 dated November 7, 1936, otherwise known as the Public Land Act. (Rep. of the
Phils. vs. Heirs of Meynardo Cabrera, G.R. No. 218418, Nov. 08, 2017)

— The declaration of alienability must be through executive fiat, as exercised by the Secretary of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316,
Sept. 18, 2017)

— The Public Land Act is a special law that applies only to alienable agricultural lands of the public
domain and not to forests, mineral lands, and national parks; alienable and disposable lands into: (a)
patrimonial lands of the State, or those classified as lands of private ownership under Art. 425 of the Civil
Code, without limitation; and (b) lands of the public domain, or the public lands as provided by the
Constitution, but with the limitation that the lands must only be agricultural. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps.
Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

— When an applicant is shown to have been in open, continuous, exclusive, and notorious possession of a
land for the period required by law, he or she has acquired an imperfect title that may be confirmed by the
State; the State may not, for the simple reason that an applicant failed to show documents which the State
is in the best position to acquire, indiscriminately take an occupied property and unjustly and self-servingly
refuse to acknowledge legally recognized rights evidenced by possession, without violating due process; the
burden of evidence lies on the party who asserts an affirmative allegation. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval,
G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

Entitlement to agricultural lands of the public domain — The Court of First Instance did not recognize,
expressly or impliedly, that private petitioners’ predecessors-in-interest occupied and cultivated the property
for more than 30 years since 1915; it also did not declare petitioners’ predecessors-in-interest as the ipso
jure owners of the same; its decision cannot bar the filing of a subsequent free patent application over the
property; entitlement to agricultural lands of the public domain requires compliance with the provisions of
Commonwealth Act No. 141, otherwise known as the Public Land Act. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct.
11, 2017)

Extrinsic fraud — Sec. 91 of the Public Land Act provides the automatic cancellation of the applications filed
on the ground of fraud and misrepresentation; only extrinsic fraud may be raised as a ground to “review or
reopen a decree of registration”; extrinsic fraud, defined; petitioners failed to establish that private
respondents committed extrinsic fraud and misrepresentation. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11,
2017)

Free patents — While it is true that “a title emanating from a free patent which was secured through fraud
does not become indefeasible because the patent from whence the title sprung is itself void,” petitioners are
not the proper parties to bring an action for the cancellation of free patents and certificates of title; the

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validity or invalidity of free patents granted by the government and the corresponding certificates of title is a
matter between the grantee and the government; purpose of the rule. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922,
Oct. 11, 2017)

Homestead patent — The applicant of a homestead must be a “citizen of the Philippines over the age of
eighteen years, or the head of a family”; he must prove compliance with the residency and cultivation
requirements under Chapter IV of Public Land Act; under the Constitution, only 12 hectares of agricultural
land of the public domain may be acquired through homestead. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11,
2017)

Judicial legalization or judicial confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles –– Any application for
confirmation of title under C.A. No. 141 already concedes that the land is previously public; for a person to
perfect one’s title to the land, he or she may apply with the proper court for the confirmation of the claim of
ownership and the issuance of a certificate of title over the property; this process is also known as judicial
confirmation of title; Sec. 48(b) of C.A. No. 141, as amended by P.D. No. 1073, states who can apply for
judicial confirmation of title. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Go, G.R. No. 197297, Aug. 02, 2017)

— Judicial legalization or judicial confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles is governed by Sec. 48 of

the Public Land Act, as amended by R.A. No. 3872 and P.D. No. 1073; the Court made an important
qualification regarding the registration of lands through judicial confirmation of imperfect title, thus: If the
mode is judicial confirmation of imperfect title under Sec. 48 (b) of the Public Land Act, the agricultural land
subject of the application needs only to be classified as alienable and disposable as of the time of the
application, provided the applicant’s possession and occupation of the land dated back to June 12, 1945, or
earlier. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Judicial legislation and administrative legalization — Both judicial legalization and administrative
legalization involve agricultural lands of the public domain and require “continuous occupation and cultivation
either by the applicant himself or through his predecessors-in-interest for a certain length of time”; judicial
legalization or judicial confirmation and free patent, distinguished; petitioners chose to apply for free
patents. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Lands of the public domain — Lands of the public domain, unless declared otherwise by virtue of a statute
or law, are inalienable and can never be acquired by prescription; no amount of time of possession or
occupation can ripen into ownership over lands of the public domain; all lands of the public domain
presumably belong to the State and are inalienable. (Diaz-Enriquez vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept.
06, 2017)

— The burden of proof in overcoming the presumption of State ownership of the lands of the public
domain is on the person applying for registration or claiming ownership, who must prove that the land
subject of the application is alienable or disposable; to overcome this presumption, incontrovertible evidence
must be established that the land subject of the application (or claim) is alienable or disposable. (Diaz-
Enriquez vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

Lease
ease — The third mode of disposition of agricultural lands of the public domain is through a lease;
ease the
government can only award the right to lease
ease through an auction, the procedure of which shall be the same
as that prescribed for sales patents; an inherent condition of the lease
ease is that the lessee should have
cultivated 1/3 of the land “within five years after the date of the approval of the lease”;
ease requirements under
the Constitution. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Reversion proceedings — A land registration proceeding is the manner through which an applicant
confirms title to real property; in this proceeding, the applicant bears the burden of overcoming the
presumption of State ownership; the applicant is bound to establish, through incontrovertible evidence, that
the land sought to be registered had been declared alienable or disposable through a positive act of the
State. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Heirs of Meynardo Cabrera, G.R. No. 218418, Nov. 08, 2017)

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Sales patents — Sales patents are governed by Chapter V of the Public Land Act; requirements; only 12
hectares of agricultural land of the public domain may be acquired through a sales patent; the Public Land
Act authorized domestic corporations to apply for sales patents over agricultural lands. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R.
No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

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