 Judicial Proceedings for the registration of lands throughout the Philippines shall be

in rem.
 Judicial Proceedings for the registration of lands throughout the Philippines shall
be in rem and shall be based on the generally accepted principles underlying the
Torrens Title.

 The Regional Trial Courts shall have the exclusive jurisdiction of title to lands.
 The Regional Trial Courts shall have the exclusive jurisdiction of title to lands,
including improvements and interests therein, and over all petitions filed after
original registration of title, with power to hear and determine all questions
arising upon such applications or petitions.

 The Regalian doctrine declares that all lands and all other natural resources are
owned by the State.
 Under the Regalian doctrine, all lands of whatever classification and other natural
resources declares that all lands and all other natural resources are owned by the
State. Unless, alienated in accordance with law, it retains its basic rights over
same as dominus.

 Jura Regalia
 Jura regalia simply means that the State is the original proprietor of all lands, as
such is the general source of all private titles. Thus, pursuant to this principle, all
claims of private title to land, save those acquired from native title must be traced
from some grant, whether expressed or implied, from the State. Absent a clear
showing that land had been let into private ownership through the State’s
imprimatur, such land is presumed to belong to the State.

 Regalian doctrine does not negate “native title”

 In Cruz v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, petitioners
challenged the constitutionality of RA No. 8371, otherwise known as the
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA), on the ground that it amounts to
an unlawful deprivation of the State’s ownership over land of the public domain
and all other natural resources therein, by recognizing the right ownership of
Indigenous Cultural Communities of Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) to their
ancestral domains and ancestral lands on the basis of native title.

HELD: The petition was dismissed and the validity of the law is deemed upheld.
The Regalian theory does not negate native title to lands held in private
ownership. In Carino v Insular Government:

The land has been held by individuals under a claim of private ownership,
it will be presumed to have been held in the same way from before the
Spanish conquest, never to have been public land

The above ruling institutionalized the recognition of the existence of native title to
land, or ownership of land by Filipinos by virtue of possession under a claim of

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 ownership since time immemorial and independent of any grant from the Spanish
Crown.

 Background of Torrens systems

 “Torrens” systems generally are meant those systems of registration of transaction
with interest inland whose declared object is under governmental authority, to
establish and certify to the ownership of an absolute and indefeasible title to
realty, and to simplify its transfer.

The Torrens system requires that the government issue an official certificate of
title attesting to the fact that the person named is the owner of the property
described therein, subject to such liens and encumbrances as thereon noted or the
law warrants or reserves.

 Purpose of the Torrens system

 In Legarda v Saleeby, the real purpose of the Torrens system is to quiet title to
land; to put a stop forever to any question of the legality of the title, except claims
which were noted at the time of registration, in certificate, or which may arise
subsequent thereto. Once a title is registered the owner may rest secure, without
the necessity of waiting in the portals of the court, or sitting in the “mirador de su
casa”, to avoid the possibility of losing his land.

 Casimiro Development Corporation v. Mateo

 The Government is required under the Torrens system of registration to issue an
official certificate of title to attest to the fact that the person named in the
certificate is the owner of the property therein described, subject to such liens and
encumbrances as thereon noted or what the law warrants or reserves.

 Torrens Title
 Torrens title is conclusive evidence with respect to the ownership of the land
described therein, and other manners which can be litigated and decided in land
registration proceedings.

 Tax declarations and tax receipts cannot prevail over certificate of title which is an
incontrovertible proof of ownership.

 Mirror Doctrine
 The Mirror Doctrine provides that the every person dealing with registered land
may safely rely on the correctness of the certificate of title issued therefor and is
in no way obliged to go beyond the certificate to determine the condition of the
property.

 Registration is not a mode of acquiring ownership

 Registration of a piece of land under the Torrens System does not create or vest
title. It is not a mode of acquiring ownership but is merely a procedure to establish

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 evidence of title over realty. It is a means of confirming the fact of its existence
with notice to the world at large.

 Rule on double registration

 In case of double registration, where land has been registered in the name of two
persons, priority registration is the settled rule. en banc case of Legarda v.
Saleeby: The owner of the earliest certificates is the owner of the land.

 Title
 Title is defined as the lawful cause or ground of possessing that which is ours. It
is that which is the foundation of ownership of property, real or personal. It is that
what constitutes a just cause of exclusive possession, or which is the foundation
of ownership of property.

 Certificate of Title
 It is a mere evidence of ownership; it is not the title to the land itself.

 The decree of registration binds the land and quiets title

 The decree of registration binds the land and quiets title thereto, subject only to
such liens as may be provided by law.

 A certificate of title shall not be subject to collateral attack, nor shall it be altered,
modified or cancelled except in a direct proceeding in accordance with law.

 A land registration is a proceeding in rem and jurisdiction in rem cannot be

acquired unless there be constructive seizure of the land through publication and
service of notice.

 The main purpose of registration is to make registered title indefeasible.

 RTCs have plenary jurisdiction over land registration cases

 Sec. 2 of PD No. 1529 provides that RTCs shall have exclusive jurisdiction over
all applications for original registration of titles to lands, including improvements
and interest therein and over all petitions filed after original registration of title,
with power to hear and determine all questions arising upon such applications or
petitions.
 Exception: MeTCs, MTCCs, MTCs, and MCTCs – delegated jurisdiction to hear
and determine cadastral or land registration cases in the following instances:

a) Where the lot sought to be registered is not the subject of controversy or

opposition;
b) Where the lot is contested but the value thereof does not exceed
P100,000.00, such value to be ascertained by the affidavit of the claimant
or by the agreement of the respective claimants, if there be more than one,
or from the corresponding tax declarations of the real property.

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 Venue
 Actions affecting title to or possession of real property, or an interest therein (real
actions), shall be commenced and tried in the proper court which has (territorial)
jurisdiction over the area where the real property involved, or a portion thereof is
situated.

 Status of other pre-existing land registration system

 Sec. 3 PD No. 1529: “The system of registration under the Spanish Mortgage Law
is hereby discontinued and all lands recorded under said system which are not yet
covered by Torrens title shall be considered as unregistered land. Xxx”

 It became necessary to discontinue the system of registration under the Spanish

Mortgage Law since recording under this system was practically nil and has
become obsolete.

 Spanish title no longer used as evidence of land ownership

 The Land Registration Commission (now LRA) shall have a chief and an assistant
chief to be known, respectively, as the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner
of Land Registration who shall be appointed by the President. The Land
Registration Commission shall have a chief and an assistant chief to be known,
respectively, as the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner of Land
Registration who shall be appointed by the President.

 Functions of the Commissioner (now LRA Administrator)

 Issue decrees of registration pursuant to final judgments of the courts in land

registration proceedings and cause the issuance by the Registers of Deeds of the
corresponding certificates of title;
 Exercise supervision and control over all Registers of Deeds and other personnel
of the Commission;
 Resolve cases elevated en consulta by, or on appeal from decision of, Registers of
Deeds;
 Exercise executive supervision over all clerks of court and personnel of the Courts
of First Instance throughout the Philippines with respect to the discharge of their
duties and functions in relation to the registration of lands;
 Implement all orders, decisions, and decrees promulgated relative to the
registration of lands and issue, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Justice,
all needful rules and regulations therefor;
 Verify and approve subdivision, consolidation, and consolidation-subdivision
survey plans of properties titled under Act No. 496 except those covered by P.D.
No. 957.

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 Functions of the Land Registration Authority
 Extend speedy and effective assistance to the Department of Agrarian Reform, the
Land Ban, and other agencies in the implementation of the land reform program
of the government;

 Extend assistance to courts in ordinary and cadastral land registration

proceedings;

 Be the central repository of records relative and cadastral land registration of

lands titled under the Torrens system, including subdivision and consolidation
plans of titled lands.

 Duty of LRA to issue decree ministerial

 The LRA officials to issue a decree of registration is purely ministerial. It is
ministerial only in the sense that they act under the orders of the court and the
decree must be in conformity with the decision of the court and with data found in
record, as to which they have no discretion on the matter.

But the issuance by LRA officials of a decree of registration is not a purely

ministerial duty in cases where they find that such would result to the double
titling of the same parcel of land.

 There shall be at least one (1) Registry of Deeds for each province and one for each
city.

 Registration
 Registration is the ministerial act by which a deed, contract, or instrument is
inscribed in the records of the Office of the Register of Deeds and annotated on
the back of the TCT covering the land subject of the deed, contract, or instrument.

 Effect of Registration

 Sec. 51 of PD No. 1529 provides that “xxx no deed, mortgage, lease, or other
voluntary instrument, except a will purporting to convey or affect registered land
shall take effect as a conveyance or bind the land, but shall operate only as a contract
between the parties and as evidence of authority to the Register of Deeds to make
registration.

The act of registration shall be the operative act to convey or affect the land insofar as
third persons are concerned, and in all cases under this Decree, the registration shall
be made in the office of the Register of Deeds for the province or city where the land
lies.”

 Where the registration of a deed of sale was done in bad faith, it is as if no

registration was made at all.

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 Between two (2) buyers of the same immovable property registered under the
Torrens system, the law gives ownership priority to:
a) The first registrant in good faith;
b) Then, the first possessor in good faith; and
c) Finally, the buyer who in good faith presents the older title.

This rule, however, does not apply if the property is not registered under the
Torrens system.

 Duty of Register of Deeds to register, ministerial

a) The function of a Register of Deeds with reference to the registration of deeds,
encumbrances, instruments and the like is ministerial in nature.

 Instances where Register of Deeds may deny registration

 Where there are several copies of the title (co-owner’s duplicate) but only one is
presented with the instrument to be registered.
 Where the property is presumed to be conjugal but the instrument of conveyance
bears the signature of only one spouse.
 Where there is a pending case in court where the character of the land and validity
of the conveyance are in issue.
 Where required certificates or documents are not submitted

 Registration does not validate an otherwise invalid instrument

 The act of registration does not validate an otherwise void contract. While
registration operates as a notice of the deed, contract, or instrument to others, it
does not add to its validity nor converts an invalid instrument into a valid one
between the parties, nor amounts to a declaration that the instrument recognizes a
valid and subsisting interest in the land.

 Survey
 Survey is the process by which a parcel of land is measured and its boundaries
and contents ascertained

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  Importance of a survey plan
 A survey plan serves to establish the true identity of the land to ensure that it does
not overlap a parcel of land or a portion thereof already covered by a previous
land registration, and to forestall the possibility that it will be overlapped by a
subsequent registration of any adjoining land.

 Only the Lands Management Bureau has the authority to approve original survey
plans for registration purposes.

 Section 14. Who may apply. The following persons may file in the proper Court of First
Instance an application for registration of title to land, whether personally or through their
duly authorized representatives:

(1) Those who by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest have been in open,
continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation of alienable and
disposable lands of the public domain under a bona fide claim of ownership since June
12, 1945, or earlier.

(2) Those who have acquired ownership of private lands by prescription under the
provision of existing laws.

(3) Those who have acquired ownership of private lands or abandoned river beds by right
of accession or accretion under the existing laws.

(4) Those who have acquired ownership of land in any other manner provided for by law.

Where the land is owned in common, all the co-owners shall file the application jointly.

Where the land has been sold under pacto de retro, the vendor a retro may file an application for
the original registration of the land, provided, however, that should the period for redemption
expire during the pendency of the registration proceedings and ownership to the property
consolidated in the vendee a retro, the latter shall be substituted for the applicant and may
continue the proceedings.

A trustee on behalf of his principal may apply for original registration of any land held in trust by
him, unless prohibited by the instrument creating the trust.

 Laws governing land registration

 Public Land Act (CA No. 141)
 The Public Land Act governs the judicial confirmation of imperfect or
incomplete title on the basis of possession and occupation of alienable

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 portions of the public domain in the manner and for the length of time
required by law.

 Property Registration Decree (PD No. 1529)

 It is a codification of all laws relative to registration of property, and
“supersedes” all other laws relative to registration of property.

 Cadastral Act (Act No. 2259)

 It is an offspring of the system of registration under the Land Registration
Act. It aims to serve public interests by requiring that “the title to any
lands be titled and adjudicated.”

 Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (RA No. 8371)

 IPRA recognizes the rights of ownership and possession of indigenous
cultural communities or indigenous people to their ancestral domains and
ancestral lands and domains.

 Proceedings in personam
 A proceeding to enforce personal rights and obligations against a person although
it may involve his right to, or exercise of ownership of, specific property.
 Actions for recovery of real property are in personam

 Proceedings in rem
 Binds the whole world

 Land must already be A and D at the time of the filing of the application
 In the case of Republic v. Court of Appeals and Naguit, the central question for
resolution is whether it is necessary under Sec 14 (1) of the Property Registration
Decree that the subject land be first classified as alienable and disposable before
the applicant’s possession under bona fide claim of ownership could even start.

The Court answered in the negative, hoding that Sec 14 (1) merely requires the
property sought to be registered as already alienable and disposable “at the time
of the application for registration of title filed.

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 Proof that land is alienable and disposable

 The standing doctrine is that land of the public domain, to be the subject of
appropriation, must be declared alienable and disposable either by the President or the
Secretary of the DENR.

In Republic v T.A.N Properties, Inc.:

Further, it is not enough for the PENRO or CENRO to certify that a land is
alienable and disposable. The applicant for land registration must prove that the
DENR Secretary had approved the land classification and released the land of the
public domain as alienable and disposable, and that the land subject of the application
for registration falls within the approved area per verification through survey by the
PENRO or CENRO.

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