Director of Lands Vs Bisnar
Director of Lands Vs Bisnar
83609, October
26, 1989
DIRECTOR
OF
LANDS,
PETITIONER, VS. COURT OF
APPEALS, IBARRA, BISNAR AND
AMELIA BISNAR, Respondent.
Facts:
In their joint application for registration of
title to two (2) parcels of land filed on July 20,
1976, the applicants Ibarra and Amelia
Bisnar claimed to be the owners in fee simple
of Lots 866 and 870 of the Pilar Cadastra,
containing an area of 28 hectares (284,424
sq.m.) and 34 hectares (345,385 sq.m.)
situated in barrio Gen. Hizon, Municipality of
President Roxas, Province of Capiz (p. 14,
Rollo). The applicants alleged that they
inherited those parcels of land (p. 41, Rollo)
and they had been paying the taxes thereon
(p. 40, Rollo).
The Director of Lands and the Director of the
Issue:
Whether the lots in question may
registered under Section 48(b) of CA 141
be
Ruling:
In the case of Bureau of Forestry vs. Court of
Appeals, 153 SCRA 351, we ruled:
"As provided for under Section 6 of
Commonwealth Act 141, which was lifted
from Act 2874, the classification or
reclassification of public lands into alienable
or disposable, mineral or forest lands is now
a prerogative of the Executive Department of
the government and not the courts. With
these rules, there should be no more room
for doubt that it is not the court which
determines the classification of lands of the
public domain into agricultural, forest or
mineral but the Executive Branch of the
government, through the Office of the
President. Hence, it was grave error and/or
abuse of discretion for respondent court to
ignore the uncontroverted facts that (1) the
disputed area is within a timberland block,
and (2) as certified to by the then Director of
Forestry, the area is needed for forest
purposes." (pp. 21-22, Rollo.)
It bears emphasizing that a positive act of the