G.R. No. 167707
October 8, 2008
Facts
This case stems from two consolidated petitions regarding the same issue, which is, the right of the present occupants of Boracay Island to secure titles over their occupied lands.
In GR No. 167707, the RTC and CA has granted the petition for declaratory relief led by respondents-claimants Mayor Jose Yap and ordered the survey of Boracay for titling purposes. Mayor Yap and other claimants asserted that they had the right to have the lots registered in their names through judicial confirmation of imperfect titles pursuant to Section 48 (b) of Commonwealth Act (CA) No. 141 or the Public Land Act. On the other hand, the OSG countered that Boracay Island was an unclassified land of the public domain, hence, it cannot be owned by private individuals.
In GR No. 173775, petitioners filed a petition for prohibition, mandamus, and nullification of Proclamation No. 1064 issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo classifying Boracay into reserved forest and agricultural land. Petitioner-claimants asserted that the Proclamation infringed on their “prior vested rights” over portions of Boracay since they have been in continued possession of their respective lots in Boracay since time immemorial. Petitioner-claimants argued that Boracay is an agricultural land pursuant to Philippine Bill of 1902 and Act No. 926. On the contrary, the OSG alleged that Boracay is an unclassified public forest land pursuant to Section 3 (a) of PD No. 705. Being public forest, the claimed portions of the island are inalienable and cannot be the subject of judicial confirmation of imperfect title.
Issue
Are the claimants entitled to judicial confirmation of imperfect title?
Held
No. The claimants are not entitled to such lands.
Under the Regalian Doctrine, all lands of the public domain belong to the State, that the State is the source of any asserted right to ownership of land and charged with the conservation of such patrimony. All lands not otherwise appearing to be clearly within private ownership are presumed to belong to the State.
There are two requisites for judicial confirmation of imperfect or incomplete title:
- a positive act reclassifying the land as alienable and disposable land of the public domain
- open, continuous, exclusive, and notorious possession and occupation of the subject land by himself or through his predecessors-in-interest under a bonafide claim of ownership since time immemorial or from June 12, 1945
The positive act may be an official proclamation, declassifying inalienable public land into disposable land for agricultural or other purposes. To overcome the presumption of State ownership of the lands of the public domain is on the person applying for registration (or claiming ownership), who must prove that the land subject of the application is alienable or disposable.
In the case at bar, no such proclamation, executive order, administrative action, report, statute, or certification was presented to the Court. The records are bereft of evidence showing that, prior to 2006, the portions of Boracay occupied by private claimants were subject of a government proclamation that the land is alienable and disposable. Hence, it is still presumed that Boracay Island is not an agricultural land but still public forest land.
The second requisite was not also satisfied since their tax declarations were issued in 1993, contrary to their claim that they are occupying the land since 1945.
Therefore, private claimants are not entitled to apply for judicial confirmation of imperfect title under CA No. 141. Neither do they have vested rights over the occupied lands under the said law.