NOTES ON PROPERTY LAW

Property v. Thing
All things which are or may be the object of appropriation are considered as property (Art. 414)

"Thing" is broader in scope for it includes both appropriable and non-appropriable objects. However, as used in the Civil Code,
“thing” is synonymous with “property.”

The human body, whether alive, or dead, is neither real nor personal property, for it is not even property at all, in that it generally
cannot be appropriated.

He may, of course, offer to another the use of various parts of his body, even the entire body itself in obligations requiring
demonstration of strength or posing in several ways, as when he poses for a painter or sculptor. He may donate part of his blood,
may even sell part of his hair, but he cannot sell his body.

※ In the case of Laud v. People, the Court took account that “human remains” can generally be transported from place to place and
hence held that “human remains” can be considered as personal property.

Classification of things
Res nullius - things belonging to no one because they have not been appropriated or because they have been abandoned by the
owner with the intention of no longer owning them (ex. Fish in the ocean, wild animals, pebbles on the sea shore)

Res communes - those owned by everybody in that their use and enjoyments are given to all of mankind (ex. Air we breathe, wind,
sunlight, starlight)

Res alijucus - objects which are owned privately, either collectively or individually

Characteristics of property
1. Utility for the satisfaction of moral or economic wants
2. Susceptibility of appropriation
3. Individuality or substantivity

Classification of property
1. Mobility and non-mobility
1. movable or personal property
2. immovable or real property
 b. Ownership
1. public dominion or ownership
2. private dominion or ownership
b. Alienability
1. within the commerce of man
2. outside the commerce of man
b. Existence
1. present property
2. future property 
b. Materiality or Immateriality
1. tangible or corporeal 
2. intangible or incorporeal 
b. Dependence or Importance
1. Principal
2. Accessory
b. Capability of Substitution
1. fungible 
2. non-fungible
b. Nature or Definiteness
1. generic
2. specific 
b. Whether in the Custody of the Court or Free
1. In custodia legis (in the custody of the court)
2. “free” property (i.e., not in “custodia legis”)

Classification of property according to its nature

Classification of property according to its nature has implications in law, such as:
1. Formalities: if the object of a sale is real property, the sale must appear in a public document
2. Prescription: the periods of prescription are different for real and personal property
3. To bind third persons

Immovable or real property

Art. 415. The following are immovable property:
1. Land, buildings, roads and construction of all kings adhered to the soil;
2. Trees, plants, and growing fruits, while they are attached to the land or form an integral part of an immovable;
 3. Everything attached to an immovable in a fixed manner, in such a way that it cannot be separated therefrom without breaking the material
or deterioration of the object;
4. Statues, reliefs, paintings, or other objects for the use or ornamentation, placed in buildings or on lands by the owner of the immovable in
such a manner that it reveals the intention to attach them permanently to the tenements;
5. Machinery, receptacles, instruments or implements intended by the owner of the tenement for an industry or works which may be carried
on in a building or on a piece of land, and which tend directly to meet the needs of said industry or works;
6. Animal houses, pigeon-houses, beehives, fishponds or breeding places of similar nature, in case their owner has placed them or
preserves them with the intention to have them permanently attached to the land, and forming a permanent part of it; the animals in these
places are included;
7. Fertilizer actually used on a piece of land;
8. Mines, quarries, and slag dumps, while the matter thereof forms part of the bed, and waters either running or stagnant;
9. Dock and structures which, though floating, are intended by their nature and object to remain in a fixed place on a river, lake or coast;
10. Contracts of public works, and servitudes and other real rights over immovable property.

Classes of immovable property

1. By nature - those which cannot be moved from place to place (land, roads, trees as spontaneous products of the soil, Art 415
par. 8)
Leung Yee v. Strong Machinery
Neither the original registry in a chattel mortgage of a building and the machinery installed therein, nor the annotation in the registry of the sale of
the mortgaged property, had any effect whatever so far as the building is concerned. A factory building is real property, and the mere fact that it is
mortgaged and sold separate and apart from that land on which it stands does not change its character as real property.
※ In Serg’s Products v. PCI Leasing and Finance, a lease agreement between the parties clearly provided that the machines in question are to
be considered as personal properties. After one of the parties alleged that the machines are real property and cannot be object of a writ of
replevin, The Court ruled that the contracting parties may validly stipulate that a real property be considered as personal. After agreeing to such
stipulation, they are consequently estopped from claiming otherwise. Clearly then, petitioners were estopped from denying the characterization of
the subject machines as personal property. Under the circumstances, the machines, though considered immovable by law, are proper subject of
the writ of seizure arising from a writ of replevin.

2. By incorporation - those which are attached to an immovable in such a manner as to form an integral part thereof (buildings
and other structures adhered to the soil, trees planted through labor, Art. 415 par. 3, 4)
Sibal v. Valdez
For the purpose of attachment and execution, and for the purposes of the Chattel Mortgage Law, “ungathered products” have the nature of
personal property. The right to the growing crops mobilizes (makes personal, as contradistinguished from immobilization) the crops by
 anticipation. More specifically, the existence of a right on the growing crop is a mobilization by anticipation, a gathering as it were, in
advance, rendering the crop movable.

3. By destination or purpose - those placed in an immovable for the use, ornamentation, exploitation or perfection of such
immovable (Art. 415 par. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9)
Davao Sawmill v. Castillo
Machinery which is movable in nature only becomes immobilized when placed in a plant by the owner of the property or plant, but not when so
placed by the tenant, a usufructuary, or any person having only a temporary right, unless such person acted as the agent of the owner.

FELS Energy v. Province of Batangas

Following Article 415 (9) of the Civil Code, power barges are categorized as immovable property by destination, being in the nature of machinery
and other implements intended by the owner for an industry or work which may be carried on in a building or on a piece of land and which tend
directly to meet the needs of said industry or work.
※ Power barges were originally and traditionally meant to be a temporary power supply as they can move around the seas providing power for a
short amount of time to coastal areas in need. They do not stay in one place for a long time. Based on this notion, power barges should be
gleaned as movable property. Although, power barges are temporary solutions to lengthened power outages, it can be said as well that power
companies, such as FELS, intended for these power barges to be a more or less permanent source of energy for their clients, far from what
power barges were originally intended for. I agree with the Supreme Court that power barges are real property, falling under both paragraphs 5
and 9 of Article 415. However, the Court could do more to elaborate how the power barges are real property by destination, or purpose or
intention, instead of loosely holding that the barges are real property under paragraph 5. As gleaned in the nest preceding case, Paragraph 5 has
much more stringent requirements for machineries, etc., to be considered real property, 

4. By analogy - those considered immovables by operation of law (Art. 415 par. 10)

Movable or personal property

Art. 416. The following things are deemed to be personal property:
1. Those movables susceptible of appropriation which are not included in the preceding article;
2. Real property which by any special provisions of law is considered as personalty;
3. Forces of nature which are brought under control by science;
4. In general, all things which can be transported from place to place without impairment of the real property to which they are fixed.

Tests to determine whether property is movable

1. Test by description - if the property is capable of being carried from place to place without injuring the real property to which it
may in the meantime be attached
2. Test by exclusion - if the object is not one of those enumerated or included in Art. 415

※ For the purposes of a search warrant, human remains is considered personal property (Laud v. People)

World Wide Web Co. v. People

PLDT’s business of providing telecommunication and telephone service are personal property susceptible of appropriation and can be the object
of crimes involving personal property such as theft.
※ This is very similar to meter tapping. Many cases of theft have already been prosecuted with electrical power, which is personal property, as
the object of the crime.

Movable by anticipation
Growing crops is considered personal property when at the time it is attached, a contract is made over the same.

Growing crops are attached in the same way as real property. However, under the chattel mortgage law, growing crops may be
considered as personal property, and may thus be the subject of a chattel mortgage. Moreover, a sale of growing crops should be
considered a sale of personal property. This is because when the crops are sold, it is understood that they are to be gathered.

Coconut trees remain real property even if sold separate and apart from the land on which they grow — as long as the trees are still
attached to the land or form an integral part thereof. 

Uprooted trees are personal property, except if the land from which it is uprooted is timber land, the uprooted trees remain real
property. Although no longer attached, the timber still forms an “integral part” of the timber land.

Art. 417. The following are also considered personal property:

1. Obligations and actions which have for their object movables or demandable sums;
2. Shares of stock of agricultural, commercial and industrial entities, although they may have real estate.

Obligations and actions which have for their object movables or demandable sums 
Although the law uses the term “obligations,” the saem really refers to rights or credits. But a right to recover possession of a piece of
land for instance is considered real and not personal because the object of the right is an immovable.

Shares of stock of entities having real estate

“Stock” should be understood in its generic meaning of “participation.” All shares in all juridical persons should be considered as
personal property.

Art. 418. Movable property is either consumable or non- consumable. To the first class belong those movables which cannot be used in a manner
appropriate to their nature without their being consumed; to the second class belong all the others.

Classifications of movable property

1. According to its nature
1. Consumable - those which cannot be used in a manner appropriate to their nature without being consumed
2. Non-consumable - any other kind of movable property
b. According to the its possibility of being substituted by others of the same kind and quality;
1. Fungible - can be replaced by the same kind of object of equal quality
2. Non-fungible - cannot be replaced and the same object must be returned

Classification of property according to its ownership

Art. 419. Property is either of public dominion or of private ownership.

Property of public domain

Art. 420. The following things are property of public dominion:
1. Those intended for public use, such as roads, canals, rivers, torrents, ports and bridges constructed by the State, banks, shores,
roadsteads, and others of similar character;
2. Those which belong to the State, without being for public use, and are intended for some public service or for the development of the
national wealth.

Art. 423. The property of provinces, cities, and municipalities is divided into property for public use and patrimonial property.

Properties of public dominion are those property owned by the State (or its political subdivisions) in its public or sovereign capacity
and intended for public use and not for the use of the State as a juridical person.

Kinds of property under public dominion

1. Property intended for public use or which can be used by everybody and others of similar character
2. Property which is not for public use but intended for public service or those which can be used only by duly authorized
persons, such as government buildings and vehicles
3. Property intended for the development of national wealth such as minerals, coal, oil, forest, and other natural resources

Characteristics of property of public dominion

1. They are outside the commerce of men
2. They cannot be appropriated
3. They cannot be alienated
4. They cannot be acquired by prescription
5. They cannot be levied upon by execution or be attached
6. They cannot be registered under the Land Registration Law and be subject of a Torrens title
7. They can be used by everybody

※ Art. 420 makes no distinction between navigable and non-navigable rivers so both kinds are property of public dominion.

※ Shores are properties of public dominion intended for public use. Portion of the foreshore or of the territorial waters and beaches
cannot be owned privately.

1987 Constitution Art. XII

SECTION 2. All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries,
forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other
natural resources shall not be alienated. x x x

SECTION 3. Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural, forest or timber, mineral lands, and national parks. Agricultural lands of the
public domain may be further classified by law according to the uses which they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public domain shall be
limited to agricultural lands. x x x

Patrimonial property
Art. 421. All other property of the State, which is not of the character stated in the preceding article, is patrimonial property.

Art. 422. Property of public dominion, when no longer intended for public use or for public service, shall form part of the patrimonial property of
the State.

Art. 424. Property for public use, in the provinces, cities, and municipalities, consist of the provincial roads, city streets, municipal streets, the
squares, fountains, public waters, promenades, and public works for public service paid for by said provinces, cities, or municipalities.
All other property possessed by any of them is patrimonial and shall be governed by this Code, without prejudice to the provisions of special laws.
Patrimonial property is property owned by the State in its private capacity and is not devoted to public use, public service, or the
development of national wealth. Unlike property of public domain, patrimonial property of the State may be alienated and be the
subject of acquisition through prescription.

Public lands become patrimonial property upon express government manifestation that the property is already patrimonial and
declaration that these are already alienable and disposable.

Only when the property has become patrimonial can the prescriptive period for the acquisition of property of the public domain begin
to run.

Laurel v. Garcia
For a property of public domain to be considered patrimonial property, there has to be a formal declaration by the legislative body in the form of a
law to withdraw it from the realm of public domain. Hence, absent this positive act from Congress declaring the Roppongi property to be
patrimonial, the Philippin government has no authority to alienate it.

Landbank v. Perez
The materials in question are presumed to be owned by the State as whatever was constructed with such would presumably belong to the owner
of the land. In this case, the materials are for government projects, the result of which would be property of public domain. Landbank is not the
owner of the materials. Hence, its contention that a breach of the Trust Receipts Law was committed is untenable since in such crime, ownership
of the misappropriated item must be with the aggrieved party.

Private property
Art. 425. Property of private ownership, besides the patrimonial property of the State, provinces, cities, and municipalities, consists of all property
belonging to private persons, either individually or collectively. 

Scope of certain terms

Art. 426. Whenever by provision of the law, or an individual declaration, the expression “immovable things or property,” or “movable things or
property,” is used, it shall be deemed to include, respectively, the things enumerated in Chapter 1 and in Chapter 2.

Whenever the word “muebles,” or “furniture,” is used alone, it shall not be deemed to include money, credits, commercial securities, stocks and
bonds, jewelry, scientific or artistic collections, books, medals, arms, clothing, horses or carriages and their accessories, grains, liquids and
merchandise, or other things which do not have as their principal object the furnishing or ornamenting of a building, except where from the context
 of the law, or the individual declaration, the contrary clearly appears.

NOTES ON PROPERTY LAW

Art. 427. Ownership may be exercised over things or rights.

Ownership in General
Ownership is the independent and general right of a person to control a thing particularly in his possession, enjoyment, disposition,
and recovery, subject to no restrictions except those imposed by the state or private persons, without prejudice to the provisions of
law.

Kinds of Ownership
1. Full ownership: includes all the rights of an owner
2. Naked ownership: ownership but the right to the use and the fruits has been denied
3. Sole ownership: ownership is vested in only one person
4. Co-ownership: ownership is vested in two or more owners.

Beneficial use, ownership or interest in property means right to its enjoyment in one person where the legal title is in another. The
term is used in two (2) senses: 
1. to indicate the interest of a beneficiary in trust property (also called “equitable ownership’’); and 
2. to refer to power of a shareholder of a corporation to buy or sell, the shares though the shareholder is not registered in the
corporation’s books as the owner. 

Traditional attributes or elements of ownership

Art. 428. The owner has the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing, without other limitations than those established by law.

The owner has also a right of action against the holder and possessor of the thing in order to recover it.

Rights of an owner under the Civil Code

1. The right to enjoy which includes:
1. Jus utendi: right to use, to exclude any person from the enjoyment and disposal of the property
2. Jus fruendi: right to the fruits
 3. Jus abutendi: right to consume the thing by its use or to abuse or destroy but not where the abuse or destruction
would endanger the properties of others
4. Jus possidendi: right to possess, the right to hold a thing or to enjoy a right; the thing is subject to the control of the will
of the owner; as against jus possessionis where you are not the owner but you possess the property
b. Jus disponendi: right to dispose, alienate, encumber, transform or to destroy
c. Jus vindicandi: right of action available to the owner to recover the property against the holder or possessor

Right to possess
Baring v. Elena Loan and Credit Co.
The purchaser in an extrajudicial foreclosure of real property becomes the absolute owner of the property if no redemption is made within one
year from the registration of the certificate of sale by those entitled to redeem. As absolute owner, he is entitled to all the rights of ownership over
a property recognized in Article 428 of the New Civil Code, not least of which is possession.

Given the ministerial nature of the RTCs duty to issue the writ of possession after the purchaser has consolidated its ownership, any question
regarding the regularity and validity of the mortgage or its foreclosure cannot be raised as justification for opposing the issuance of the writ. A
pending action for annulment of mortgage or foreclosure does not stay the issuance of a writ of possession.

Right to the fruits

The right to the fruits includes the right to three kinds of fruits:
1. Natural fruits: spontaneous products of the soil, the young and other products of animals
2. Industrial fruits: produced by lands through cultivation or labor
3. Civil fruits: rents, prices of leases of land and other property, amount of perpetual or life annuities, other similar income

Right to recover
Every possessor has a right to be respected in his possession and should he be disturbed therein, he shall be protected in or
restored to said possession by the means established by the laws and the Rules of Court.

If somebody actually possesses a piece of property and claims to be the owner thereof, the law raises a disputable presumption of
ownership. The true owner must resort to judicial process for the recovery of the property.

Actions to recover property

1. Recovery of personal property
1. Replevin
b. Recovery of real property
1. Forcible entry
 2. Unlawful detainer
3. Accion publiciana
4. Accion reivindicatoria
b. Writ of preliminary mandatory injunction
c. Writ of possession

Property Issue Period of

Action Definition Jurisdiction
involved involved prescription

Replevin Personal Complaint prays for the recovery of Physical 4 or 8 years on

possession of personal property; possession account of good or
complainant must attach to the bad faith
complaint an affidavit containing the
facts and a bond double the value
of the property involved as required
by the Rules of Court

Forcible entry Real Recovery of real property when a Physical 1 year from MTC
person originally in possession of possession, dispossession
real property was deprived thereof in personam 
by force, intimidation, strategy,
threat, or stealth (FISTS)

Unlawful Real Recovery of real property from a Physical 1 year from the time MTC
detainer person whose possession of it was possession, possession
once lawful, by contract with or by in personam becomes unlawful
tolerance of the owner, but became If fixed period of
unlawful afterward lease, 1 year from
the expiration
If non-fulfillment of
conditions, 1 year
from the date of
demand to vacate
Accion Real Recovery of the better right to Possession 10 years MTC if property’s value
publiciana possess; if entry was not obtained de jure, in does not exceed
through FISTS; when action for personam 20,000 pesos outside
forcible entry or unlawful detainer MM, or does not
has prescribed exceed 50,000 pesos
in MM

RTC if property’s value

exceeds 20,000 pesos
outside MM, or
exceeds 50,000 pesos
in MM

Accion Real Recovery of ownership Ownership, in 30 years MTC if property’s value

reivindicatoria personam does not exceed
20,000 pesos outside
MM, or does not
exceed 50,000 pesos
in MM

RTC if property’s value

exceeds 20,000 pesos
outside MM, or
exceeds 50,000 pesos
in MM

Preliminary Real or Allowed under certain conditions Material

mandatory personal when availed of with the original possession
injunction case of forcible entry and during
appeal in the case of unlawful
detainer

Writ of Real or Summary order directing the sheriff Material

possession personal to place plaintiff in possession of a possession
property
 Cabrera v. Getaruela
In an unlawful detainer case, the sole issue for resolution is physical or material possession of the property involved, independent of any claim of
ownership by any of the parties. However, where the issue of ownership is raised, the courts may pass upon the issue of ownership in order to
determine who has the right to possess the property. This adjudication is only an initial determination of ownership for the purpose of settling the
issue of possession, the issue of ownership being inseparably linked thereto. The lower court's adjudication of ownership in the ejectment case is
merely provisional and would not bar or prejudice an action between the same parties involving title to the property.

Barrientos v. Rapal
Ejectment cases — forcible entry and unlawful detainer — are summary proceedings designed to provide expeditious means to protect actual
possession or the right to possession of the property involved. The only question that the courts resolve in ejectment proceedings is: who is
entitled to the physical possession of the premises, that is, to the possession de facto and not to the possession de jure. It does not even matter if
a party’s title to the property is questionable.

It should be stressed that unlawful detainer and forcible entry suits, under Rule 70 of the Rules of Court, are designed to summarily restore
physical possession of a piece of land or building to one who has been illegally or forcibly deprived thereof, without prejudice to the settlement of
the parties’ opposing claims of juridical possession in appropriate proceedings. These actions are intended to avoid disruption of public order by
those who would take the law in their hands purportedly to enforce their claimed right of possession. In these cases, the issue is pure physical or
de facto possession, and pronouncements made on questions of ownership are provisional in nature. The provisional determination of ownership
in the ejectment case cannot be clothed with finality.

Republic v. Sunvar Realty

The action for unlawful detainer of the lessor shall commence only after a demand to pay or to comply with the conditions of the lease and to
vacate is made upon the lessee; or after a written notice of that demand is served upon the person found on the premises, and the lessee fails to
comply therewith within 15 days in the case of land or 5 days in the case of buildings. 

On the other hand, accion publiciana is the plenary action to recover the right of possession which should be brought in the proper regional trial
court when dispossession has lasted for more than one year. It is an ordinary civil proceeding to determine the better right of possession of realty
independently of title. In other words, if at the time of the filing of the complaint, more than one year had elapsed since defendant had turned
plaintiff out of possession or defendant's possession had become illegal, the action will be, not one of forcible entry or illegal detainer, but an
accion publiciana.

※ In the period between the expiry of the lease contract and the date of the last demand, the lessor is deemed to have tolerated the possession
 of the property by the lessee, thus making the possession lawful.

Limitations on the right of ownership

1. General limitations imposed by the state for its benefit, such as the power of eminent domain, police power, and taxation
2. Specific limitations imposed by law, such as legal servitudes
3. Limitations imposed by the party transmitting the property by contract or by will
4. Limitations imposed by the owner themselves such as voluntary servitudes, mortgages, pledges, and lease rights
5. Inherent limitations arising from conflict with other rights
6. The constitutional prohibition of acquisition of real estate by aliens

Burdens of ownership
While an owner has certain rights over his property, he also suffers from certain disadvantages or consequences of said ownership.
For instance, he bears the loss of his property following the rule of res perit domino.

Doctrine of self-help
Art. 429. The owner or lawful possessor of a thing has the right to exclude any person from the enjoyment and disposal thereof. For this purpose,
he may use such force as may be reasonably necessary to repel or prevent an actual or threatened unlawful physical invasion or usurpation of his
property.
 
Justified use of force in defense of property
1. Force must be employed by the owner or lawful possessor of the property
2. There must be actual or threatened physical invasion or usurpation of the property
3. The invasion or usurpation must be unlawful
4. The force employed must be reasonably necessary to repel the invasion or usurpation

Limitation of the owner in fencing or enclosing his land tenement

Art. 430. Every owner may enclose or fence his land or tenements by means of walls, ditches, live or dead hedges, or by any other means
without detriment to servitudes constituted therein.

Limitation of an owner in using his property

Art. 431. The owner of a thing cannot make use thereof in such manner as to injure the rights of a third person.
This is one of the fundamental bases of police power, and constitutes a just restriction of the right of ownership.

Doctrine of state of necessity

Art. 432. The owner of a thing has no right to prohibit the interference of another with the same, if the interference is necessary to avert an
imminent danger and the threatened damage, compared to the damage arising to the owner from the interference, is much greater. The owner
may demand from the person benefited indemnity for the damage to him.

Doctrine of incomplete privilege

The owner cannot refuse interference by another if such is necessary to avert an imminent danger and the threatened damage,
compared to the damage arising to the owner from the interference is much greater.

Disputable presumptions of ownership

Art. 433. Actual possession under claim of ownership raises a disputable presumption of ownership. The true owner must resort to judicial
process for the recovery of the property.

1. There must be actual possession

2. There must be a claim of ownership

This applies to both immovable and movable property.

Recourse to judicial process

The true owner has to resort to judicial process to recover his property, only if the possessor does not want to surrender the property
to him after proper request or demand. The true owner cannot take the law into his own hands.

Requisites in an action to recover

Art. 434. In an action to recover, the property must be identified, and the plaintiff must rely on the strength of his title and not on the weakness of
the defendant’s claim.

1. Property must be identified

2. Plaintiff must rely on the strength of his title and not on the weakness of the defendant’s claim
o If the claims for both plaintiff and defendant are weak, judgment must be for the defendant, for the latter, being in
possession, is presumed to be the owner, and cannot be obliged to show or prove a better title.
Eminent domain
Art. 435. No person shall be deprived of his property except by competent authority and for public use and always upon payment of just
compensation.

Should this requirement be not first complied with, the courts shall protect and, in a proper case, restore the owner in his possession.

1987 Constitution Art. III

SECTION 9. Private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.

Eminent domain, or the superior right of the State to own certain properties under certain conditions, is a limitation on the right of
ownership, and may be exercised even over private properties of cities, municipalities, and even over lands registered with a Torrens
title. It is based on the need for human progress and community welfare or development. The power is inseparable from sovereignty,
being essential to the existence of the State and inherent in the government even in its most primitive forms.

As distinguished from “expropriation”

Eminent domain refers to the right or the power of the State. Expropriation usually refers to the procedure through which the right or
power is exercised.

When the State can seize or condemn property

Art. 436. When any property is condemned or seized by competent authority in the interest of health, safety, or security, the owner thereof shall
not be entitled to compensation, unless he can show that such condemnation or seizure is unjustified.

This is based on the State’s exercise of police power, which in turn is based on the maxim that “the welfare of the people is the
supreme law of the land.”

Police power needs no giving of financial return before it can be exercised. 

Nuisances
In the exercise of this power, the State may abate nuisances.
1. Public nuisance: that which affects a community or a considerable number of persons (Art. 695)
2. Private nuisance: that which is not public (Art. 695)
3. Nuisance per se: that which is a nuisance under all circumstances
4. Nuisance per accidens: that which is a nuisance only under certain circumstances
Surface Right of a Land Owner
Art. 437. The owner of a parcel of land is the owner of its surface and of everything under it, and he can construct thereon any works or make any
plantations and excavations which he may deem proper, without detriment to servitudes and subject to special laws and ordinances. He cannot
complain of the reasonable requirements of aerial navigation.

“Surface right” is what is commonly referred to as the extent of ownership which a person has over a parcel of land. It is understood
that he also owns the land’s surface and everything under it, up to the boundaries of the land, with the right to make thereon
allowable constructions, plantings, and excavations.

Restrictions on surface right

1. Servitudes or easements
2. Special laws, like the Mining Law
3. Ordinances
4. The reasonable requirements of aerial navigation
5. Principles on human relations

Regalian Doctrine to be observed

The owner of the land cannot be the owner of the minerals found under it. Ownership of the minerals is reserved in favor of the State
even if the land in which it is found is private.

Hidden Treasure
Art. 438. Hidden treasure belongs to the owner of the land, building, or other property on which it is found.

Nevertheless, when the discovery is made on the property of another, or of the State or any of its subdivisions, and by chance, one-half thereof
shall be allowed to the finder. If the finder is a trespasser, he shall not be entitled to any share of the treasure.

If the things found be of interest to science or the arts, the State may acquire them at their just price, which shall be divided in conformity with the
rule stated.

Where hidden treasure may be found

1. Land
2. Buildings
3. Other property
To whom hidden treasure which is discovered belongs
Hidden treasure belongs to the owner of the land, building, or other property on which it is found.

When discovery is made on the property of another, or of the State or any of its subdivisions, and by chance, one half thereof shall
be allowed to the finder. If the finder is a trespasser, he shall not be entitled to any share of the treasure.

If the things found be of interest to science or the arts, the State may acquire them at their just price, which shall be divided in
conformity with the rule stated.

Meaning of by chance
Spanish commentators: there must be no purpose or intent to look for the treasure.

Deans Capistrano and Francisco: “by good luck,” one who intentionally looks for the treasure is included in the provision.

Paras: “by chance” really means “by good luck,” whether there was a deliberate search for the treasure or not but there was no prior
agreement on how the treasure, if found, would be divided. It is extremely difficult to find hidden treasure without looking for it
deliberately.

Hidden treasure in lands under usufruct

If the usufructuary is the finder, he is entitled to one half of the hidden treasure because he is considered as a stranger to the land.
The other half shall pertain to the naked owner.

If a third person finds the hidden treasure in the land under a usufruct, the usufructuary is not entitled to any share. One half shall
pertain to the finder, the other to the naked owner.

Meaning of hidden treasure

Art. 439. By treasure is understood, for legal purposes, any hidden and unknown deposit of money, jewelry, or other precious objects, the lawful
ownership of which does not appear.

Requisites on hidden treasures

For the rule on hidden treasures to apply, the following requisites must concur:
1. The treasure must consist of money, jewelry, or other precious objects.
2. It must be hidden and unknown.
3. Its lawful ownership does not appear.
4. The discovery must be made by chance.
5. The discoverer must be a stranger, not a trespasser.