PROPERTY

Art. 415: The following are movable properties

1. Lands, buildings, roads and constructions of all kinds adhered to the soil.
2. Trees, plants, and growing fruits while they are attached on the land or form an integral
part of tan 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, relief, paintings, or other objects for use or ornamentation, placed in buildings
or on lands by the owner of the immovable in such manner that it reveals the intention
to permanently attach them 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 the said industry or works
6. Animal houses, pigeon-houses, beehives, fish ponds or breeding places of similar
nature, in case their owner has placed them or preserved 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. Fertilizers 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. Docks and structures while though floating are intended by their nature and object to
remain at a fixed place on a river, lake or coast
10.Contracts of public works and servitudes and other real rights over immovable
property.
Art. 416: The following are movable properties
1. Those movables susceptible of appropriation which are not included in the preceding
article;
2. Real property which by any special provision of the law is considered personalty
(growing crops; machinery place on a tenement by a tenant)
3. Forces of nature which are brought under control by science. (electricity, gas, light,
nitrogen)
4. In general, all things which can be transported from one place to another without
impairment of the real property which they are fixed. (laptop, computer, portable
radio)
5. Article 417: a. Obligations and actions which have for their objects movable or
demandable sums
6. b. Shares of stock of agricultural, commercial and industrial entities, although they
may have real properties.
Three test to determine whether the property is movable or immovable:
1. Capable of being carried from place to place
2. Change in location can be made without injuring the real property to which it may in
the meantime be attached
3. Object is not one of those enumerated or included in Art. 415.
Personnel effects only tangible (can be seen or touched) property as applied to a
person and cannot include automobiles.
Money is legal tender and not merchandise. (personal property)
Art. 418: Movable property is either consumable or non-consumable
By nature:
Consumable this cannot be used according to its nature without its being
consumed.

Non-consumable any other kind of movable property.

By intention:
Fungible replaceable by an equal quality and quantity
Non-fungible irreplaceable, because identical objects must be returned.
Property in relation to whom it belongs:
Art. 419 : Property is either of public domain or of private ownership
Art. 420 : Property of public dominion
1) Those intended for public use (roads, canal, may be used by anybody)
2) Those intended for public service (national government building, army riffles, army
vessels, may be used by authorized persons)
3) Those for the development of national wealth natural resources
Rivers whether navigable or not properties of public domain?
-

If river is NAVIGABLE, useful for commerce, for navigation, and fishing it is of

public domain.
Navigable river are outside the commerce of man and therefore cannot be registered
under the Land Registration Law.

Characteristics of properties of public dominion

1. Outside the commerce of man
2. Cannot be acquired by prescription
3. Cannot be registered under the Land Registration Law and be the subject of
Torrens Title
4. Cannot be levied upon by execution, nor can they be attached
5. Can be used by everybody
6. Either real or personal property
Public Lands : national domain, as has not been subjected to private right or devoted to
public use.
(While agricultural land may be sold to or acquired by private individual or
entities, ownership over mining and forest lands cannot be transferred, but leases for
them may be had)
Public Agricultural Lands those alienable portions of the public domain which are
neither timber nor mineral lands.
Public Forests inalienable public lands and possession of it, however long, cannot ripen
into private ownership.
Exploration permits are strictly granted to entities or individuals possessing the
resources and capability to undertake mining operations.
Government Land broader as it include also those lands devoted to public use or
public service, as well as public lands before and after they are made available for
private appropriation and also patrimonial lands.
Article 421: Patrimonial Property the property own by the state but which is not
devoted to public use, public service, or o the development of national wealth. It is
wealth owned by the state in its private capacity.
Examples: Friar Lands; San Lazaro Estate, Escheat proceeding as when there is
no other legal heir of a decedent, donation to the government, rent of building owned
by the state, a municipal-owned waterworks system.
Article 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.

And only when the property has become patrimonial can the prescriptive period
for the acquisition of property of the public dominion begin to run.
(a) Patrimonial property is private property of the government. The person
acquires ownership of patrimonial property by prescription under the Civil Code is
entitled to secure registration thereof under Section 14(2) of the Property
Registration Decree.
(b) There are two kinds of prescription by which patrimonial property may be
acquired, one ordinary and other extraordinary. Under ordinary acquisitive
prescription, a person acquires ownership of a patrimonial property through
possession for at least ten (10) years, in good faith and with just title. Under
extraordinary acquisitive prescription, a persons uninterrupted adverse
possession of patrimonial property for at least thirty (30) years, regardless of
good faith or just title, ripens into ownership. (Malabanan v. Republic, G.R. No.
179987, April 29, 2009))
Abandoned river bed belongs not to the state, but to the private land owner
whose land is now occupied by the changed course, in proportion to the area lost.
(Art.461)

Article 423 : The property of provinces, cities, and municipalities is divided into
property for public use and patrimonial property.
- Reclaimed Lands = the result of the intervention of man just like in the
extraction of mineral resources i.e., gold, oil, petroleum. It does not fall under
the category of natural resources, it is statutory law which determines the
status of reclaimed land.
- Properties of political subdivisions (property for public use and patrimonial
property)
Article 424 : Kinds of properties of political subdivisions
Public use 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.
Patrimonial - all other property (Public Service)