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Republic vs. Muñoz. GR No. 151910, October 15, 2007
Republic vs. Muñoz. GR No. 151910, October 15, 2007
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* FIRST DIVISION.
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the Public Land Act, remains to this day the existing general law
governing the classification and disposition of lands of the public
domain, other than timber and mineral lands. Section 6 of CA No.
141 empowers the President to classify lands of the public domain
into „alienable and disposable‰ lands of the public domain, which
prior to such classification are inalienable and outside the
commerce of man. Section 7 of CA No. 141 authorizes the President
to „declare what lands are open to disposition or concession.‰
Section 8 of CA No. 141 states that the government can declare
open for disposition or concession only lands that are „officially
delimited and classified.‰
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AZCUNA, J.:
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3 Records, p. 1.
112
within the period of six (6) months from February 16, 1976
as required by P.D. No. 892. From the records, it appears
that the instant application was recently filed.
(4) That the parcel applied for is part of the public domain
belonging to the Republic of the Philippines not subject to
private appropriation.
(5) That this application was filed beyond December 31, 1987,
the period set forth under Sec. 2, P.D. No. 1073 and
4
therefore, is filed out of time.‰
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7 Id., at p. 64.
8 TSN, May 23, 1997, p. 4.
9 Records, p. 76.
10 Exhibit „I,‰ Id., at pp. 77-79.
11 TSN, May 23, 1997, p. 6.
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12 Id., at p. 7.
13 Records, p. 88.
14 Id., at p. 86.
15 Id., at pp. 95-96.
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I.
II.
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16 Rollo, p. 14.
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„On the first challenge, the petitioner invokes the case of Director of
Lands v. Reyes, where it was held that „the original tracing cloth
plan of the land applied for which must be approved by the Director
of Lands was „a statutory requirement of mandatory character‰ for
the identification of the land sought to be registered. As what was
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submitted was not the tracing cloth plan but only the blueprint copy
of the survey plan, the respondent court should have rejected the
same as insufficient.
We disagree with this contention. The Court of Appeals was
correct when it observed that in that case the applicant in effect
„had not submitted anything at all to identify the subject property‰
because the blueprint presented lacked the approval of the Director
of Lands. By contrast·
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23 Id., at pp. 87-88, citing Republic v. Court of Appeals, supra note 19,
at pp. 153-154.
24 Director of Lands v. Intermediate Appellate Court, G.R. No. 70825,
March 11, 1991, 195 SCRA 38, 44, citing Director of Lands v. Court of
Appeals, G.R. No. 56613, March 14, 1988, 158 SCRA 568,
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26
It must be pointed out that in its Report dated March 6,
1997, the LRA stated that:
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29 Chavez v. Public Estates Authority, 433 Phil. 506, 545; 384 SCRA
152, 191 (2002).
30 Republic v. Tri-Plus Corporation, G.R. No. 150000, September 26,
2006, 503 SCRA 91, 101-102, citing Republic v. Naguiat, G.R. No.
134209, January 24, 2006, 479 SCRA 585, 590.
31 Republic v. Herbieto, G.R. No. 156117, May 26, 2005, 459 SCRA 183,
199-200, citing Padilla v. Reyes, 60 Phil. 967, 969 (1934), Lee Hong Hok v.
David, G.R. No. L-30389, December 27, 1972, 48 SCRA 372, 379.
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