February 9, 1998
DAR OPINION NO. 16-98
MEMORANDUM
FOR : VICTOR GERADO BULATAO
Undersecretary, FOSSO
FROM : ARTEMIO A. ADASA, JR.
Undersecretary, PPLAO
SUBJECT : Coverage Under VOS of Untitled Property with an Area of 278.4028 Hectares Situated in San Narciso, Quezon
This refers to your Memorandum of 10 November 1997 wherein you requested for a formal statement as to whether the decision of the then Court of First Instance (CFI now RTC) of Gumaca (Civil Case No. 1093-G), and the existence of the Spanish document,(assuming it is authentic), change the nature of the land voluntarily offered for CARP coverage by the heirs of Hilarion Tan Herrera, from alienable and disposal, (A & D) land of the public domain to private land so as to vest Jurisdiction, thereof with the Department of, Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Deduced from a reading of available records are the following, to wit: 1) that, as early, as 16 June 1922, Hilarion Tan-Herrera purchased the property covered by a possessorial document of January 25, 1897 and from then on continuously occupied the same, and paid the taxes due on the property; 2) that the land was classified as alienable and disposable only in 1968; 3) that on 16 February 1976, Presidential Decree No. 892 was issued declaring the discontinuance of the Spanish Mortgage System of Registration and the use of Spanish titles as evidence in land registration proceedings; 4) that in September 24, 1980 a Decision in Civil Case No. 1093-G (Quieting of Title, entitled Cristina Carabit (wife of Hilarion Tan-Herrera), plaintiff versus, Fermon Bariata, defendant,) was rendered by the then CFI of Gumaca, Quezon declaring the plaintiff as the true and lawful owner of that particular parcel of land presently covered by Tax Declaration No. 1451 consisting of more or less 278 hectares; 5) that Jose Ma. L, Villareal, Clerk of Court, Branch 62, RTC, Gumaca, Quezon Issued a certification dated July 23, 1992 certifying that there is no registration case pending over the land owned by Adelina Tan Correa, Alfredo C. Tan, Hilarion Tan and Cristina Cabarit, formerly covered by Old Tax Dec., No. 1451 which is now segregated and each has its new Tax Dec. Nos. 45-018-0078, 45-018-0080, 45-018-0079 and 45-018-0077; and 6) that the subject property was voluntarily offered for CARP coverage.
The laws pertinent to the issue at hand are 1) Presidential Decree No. 892 (Discontinuance of the Spanish Mortgage System of Registration and of the Use of Spanish Title, as Evidence in Land Registration Proceedings.); and Republic Act No. 6940 (An Act Granting a Period Ending on December 31, 2000 for Filing Application for Free Patent and Judicial Confirmation of Imperfect Title to Alienable and Disposable Lands of the Public Domain Under Chapters VII and VIII of the Public Land Act (CA 141, As Amended).
P.D. No. 892 which took effect on February 16, 1976 abolished the system of registration under the Spanish Mortgage Law and provides that all holders of Spanish titles or grants should cause their lands covered thereby to be registered under the Land Registration Act (Act No. 496) within six (6) months from the effectivity of this Decree or until August 16, 1976. Otherwise, non-compliance therewith will result in a reclassification of their lands into unregistered private land.
Applying the aforesaid law to the issue, it is clear that the subject property is an untitled private land considering that the claimant, the heirs of Hilarion Tan-Herrera are holders of possessory title and that they failed to comply with the registration requirement of P.D. No. 892 as can be gleaned by their act of filing with the then CFI a petition for Quieting of Title instead of an application for Registration of Land Title. The law is explicit regarding the re-classification of lands covered by Spanish document such as the herein possessorial document of January 25, 1897, into unregistered land.
Likewise, a perusal of R.A. No. 6940 reveals that any natural born citizen of the Philippines who does not own more than 12 hectares and who for at least 30 years prior to its effectively, has continuously occupied and cultivated, whether by himself or his predecessors-in-interest, a tract or tracts of agricultural land subject to disposition, who shall have paid the real estate tax thereon while the same has not been occupied by any person shall be entitled, to have a free patent issued to him for such land not to exceed 12 hectares.
With the foregoing and considering that the Heirs of Tan Herrera are in continuous occupancy of the property for at least thirty (30) years prior to the effectivity of R. A. No. 6940 on April 16, 1990, therefore, the disposition of the subject land is well within the jurisdiction of this Department since the heirs of Hilarion Tan-Herrera has already acquired a recognizable private right over the landholding subject of their Voluntary Offer to Sell.
The issue regarding the Decision rendered by the then C.F.I, of Gumaca in Civil Case No. 1093-G, favoring the wife of Hilarion Tan Herrera, Cristina Carabit as the true and lawfull owner of the subject land is of no relevance to the central issue since P.D. No. 892 has outlawed all Spanish titles including possessory information titles, unless they, were authenticated in appropriate registration proceedings before August 16, 1876.
January 27, 1998.
(SGD.) ARTEMIO A. ADASA, JR.
Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, and Policy and Planning