2. AGLIBOT v.

MAÑALAC
G.R. No. L-14530, April 25, 1962
LEONA AGLIBOT, ET AL., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. ANDREA ACAY MAÑALAC, ET AL., Defendants-
Appellants.

FACTS:

The subject parcel of land situated in barrio Namanaan, Municipality of San Antonio, Zambales
belonged to the conjugal partnership of Anacleto and Maria. They had a daughter named Juliana.
When Maria died, she was survived by her husband, daughter, and 2 sisters, herein Plaintiffs-
Appellees Leona and Evarista Aglibot. Her ½ portion of the conjugal property was inherited by her
daughter.

Subsequently, Anacleto contracted a second marriage with Andrea Acay, with whom he had 6
children, herein defendants-appellants. In 1920, Juliana died intestate without any descendant, thus
living to her father the property she inherited from her mother. Years later, in 1942, Anacleto died.

In this case, plaintiffs-appellees Aglibots claimed that they inherited subject land from their deceased
niece Juliana Mañalac, upon the death of Anacleto Mañalac, father of Juliana. However, the
defendants-appellants took possession of said property, claimed it as their own and had since then
appropriated for themselves all the palay annually harvested therefrom amounting to 30 cavanes. On
May 18, 1951, they filed a petition in CFI Zambales for the summary partition or distribution of the
properties left by the deceased Juliana Mañalac among her rightful heirs. In this case, the trial court
ruled that Leona Aglibot and Evarista Aglibot are the only heirs within the third degree of Juliana
Mañalac, and belonging to the same line from which these properties originally belong, that is, from
Maria Aglibot, being the sisters of the latter. As such, each of them is entitled to receive and enter into
possession of one-half of the first five parcels and one-fourth of the last two, after paying such debts
of the estate, if any. After securing the decision, they demanded from defendants-appellants to
surrender to them the property, but to no avail.

Defendants-Appellants, on the other hand, claimed that the land in question was purchased from
Esteban Garcia by the spouses Anacleto Mañalac and Maria Aglibot for P1,000.00. When Maria
Aglibot died, only P300.00 of this amount had been paid and the remaining P700.00 was paid to the
vendor during the marriage of Anacleto Mañalac and Andrea. Upon the death of Anacleto, his widow,
Andrea, and their children acquired the subject property as his sole legal heirs.

Plaintiffs-appellees then filed an action to recover the ownership and possession of the said property
from defendants-appellants Andrea Acay Mañalac and her children — Ramona, Gregorio, Felix,
Angela, Juanita and Purisima, all surnamed Mañalac.

After due trial, the trial court ruled that the plaintiffs-appellees are the owners pro-indiviso of one half
(1/2) of the subject land and for the defendants-appellants to deliver to them 15 cavanes of palay
yearly as the share of plaintiffs-appellees from the produce of the land or its equivalent value at
P10.00 a cavan from the date of the filing of the complaint until the said one-half (1/2) portion of the
property is delivered to the plaintiffs-appellees. Hence, this appeal by defendants-appellants.

ISSUE:
Whether or not the sisters of Maria are entitled to the subject property - YES

HELD:

The land in question is reservable property in accordance with the provisions of Article 811 of the
Spanish Civil Code (Article 891 of the New Civil Code). In accordance with law, therefore, Anacleto
Mañalac was obliged to reserve the portion he had thus inherited from his daughter for the benefit of
the Aunts of Juliana on the maternal side and who are, therefore, her relative within the third degree
belonging to the line from which said property came.

Moreover, there was no evidence that the major portion of the purchase price of the subject land was
paid to the original owner, Esteban Garcia, after the death of Maria Aglibot as the land was titled in
the name of Anacleto Mañalac "married to Maria Aglibot" — a circumstance that strongly indicates
that said spouses had acquired full ownership thereof during the lifetime of Maria Aglibot.

With regard to the delivery of 15 cavanes of palay yearly or pay their equivalent value of P10.00 a
cavan, from the date of the filing of the complaint, it was only Andrea who should be burdened with it,
considering that the property in controversy formed part of the estate of Anacleto Mañalac and that
upon the latter’s death, the ownership thereof was transmitted to all his heirs, subject to the
usufructuary rights of the surviving spouse, Andrea. Hence, the latter only enjoyed possession of the
property since her husband’s death and received the annual share.