LEGAL NOTE 0060: HOW TO PROVE THAT LAND IS ALIENABLE OR DISPOSABLE.

 SOURCE: UNION LEAF TOBACCO CORPORATION, REPRESENTED BY ITS PRESIDENT MR. HILARION P. UY VS. REPUBLIC   OF  THE PHILIPPINES (G.R. NO. 185683, 16 MARCH 2011, CARPIO MORALES, J.) SUBJECT: ALIENABLE AND DISPOSABLE LAND; POSSESSION SINCE 12 JUNE 1945. (BRIEF TITLE: UNION LEAF VS. REPUBLIC).

CASE DIGEST:

UNION LEAF TOBACCO CORP FILED APPLICATIONS FOR LAND REGISTRATION OF CERTAIN PARCELS OF LAND. HIS PROOF THAT THE LANDS ARE ALIENABLE AND DISPOSABLE ARE  ADVANCE PLANS AND CONSOLIDATED PLANS WHICH ALL NOTED THAT THE SUBJECT LANDS ARE “INSIDE ALIENABLE AND DISPOSABLE AREA AS PER PROJECT NO. 5-A, LC MAP NO. 2891.”[12] 

ARE THE SURVEY PLANS SUFFICIENT PROOF THAT SUCH PARCELS OF LAND ARE ALIENABLE AND DISPOSABLE.

NO.

THE SUPREME COURT RULED:

The Advance Plans and Consolidated Plans are hardly the competent pieces of evidence that the law requires.  The notation by a geodetic engineer on the survey plans that properties are alienable and disposable does not suffice to prove these lands’ classification.[14] 

Republic v. T.A.N. Properties, Inc.[15] directs that    

x x x x [T]he applicant for registration must present a copy of the original classification approved by the DENR Secretaryand certified as a true copy by the legal custodian of the official records.  These facts must be established to prove that the land is alienable and disposable.  Respondent failed to do so because the certifications presented by respondent do not, by themselves, prove that the land is alienable and disposable.[16] (emphasis and underscoring supplied) 

Respondent failed to comply with this directive.  This leaves it unnecessary to delve into the testimonies of petitioner’s predecessors-in-interest respecting their alleged possession of the subject properties. 

 

*               Designated member per Special Order No. 940 dated February 7, 2011, in lieu of Associate Justice Arturo D. Brion.

[1]               Rollo, p. 459. 

[2]               Records (LRC Case No. A-294) pp. 1-4; records (LRC Case No. A-295) pp. 1-3; records (LRC Case No. A-296), pp. 1-3; and  records (LRC Case No. A-298), pp. 1-3.

[3]               Id.  

[4]               Id. at  27-29; pp. 16-18; pp. 15-17; and pp. 15-17.

[5]               Id. at 140-141; pp. 94-95;pp. 94-95; and pp. 91-92.

[6]               Id. at p. 151; p. 104, p. 104; and p. 101. 

[7]               Rollo, pp. 286-305.  Penned by Presiding Judge Clifton U. Ganay.

[8]               Ibid. 

[9]               Id. at 47-56.  Penned by Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison with Associate Justices Juan Q. Enriquez Jr. and Isaias P. Dicdican concurring.

[10]             Id. at 58-60. 

[11]             Id. at  464-466.

[12]             Id. at 465; Exhibit “C.”

[13]             Vide Comment on Motion for Reconsideration dated April 30, 2010, pp. 5-7.  

[14]             Menguito v. Republic, 401 Phil. 274 (2000).

[15]             G.R. No. 154953, June 26, 2008, 555 SCRA 477. 

[16]             Id. at 489.