PUBLIC LAND ACT (C.A. NO.

141)
Administrative legalization or grant of free patent — The grant of free patents is
governed by Sec. 44, paragraph 1 of the Public Land Act, as amended by R.A. No.
6940; requisites: (1) the applicant must be a natural-born citizen of the Philippines; (2)
the applicant must not own more than 12 hectares of land; (3) the applicant or his or
her predecessors-in-interest must have continuously occupied and cultivated the land;
(4) the continuous occupation and cultivation must be for a period of at least 30 years
before April 15, 1990, which is the date of effectivity of R.A. No. 6940; and (5)
payment of real estate taxes on the land while it has not been occupied by other
persons. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Alienable land — An applicant is not necessarily entitled to have the land registered
under the Torrens system simply because no one appears to oppose his title and to
oppose the registration of his land; he must show, even though there is no
opposition to the satisfaction of the court, that he is the absolute owner, in fee simple.
(Diaz-Enriquez vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

Application for land registration — A mere invocation of “private rights” does not
automatically entitle an applicant to have the property registered in his name; persons
claiming the protection of private rights in order to exclude their lands from military
reservations must show by clear and convincing evidence that the pieces of property in
question have been acquired by a legal method of acquiring public lands. (Diaz-
Enriquez vs.  Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

—      The necessary requirements for the grant of an application for land registration
are the following: 1) the applicant must, by himself or through his predecessors-in-
interest, have been in possession and occupation of the subject land; 2) the possession
and occupation must be open, continuous, exclusive, and notorious; 3) the possession
and occupation must be under a bona fide claim of ownership for at least thirty years
immediately preceding the filing of the application; and 4) the subject land must be an
agricultural land of the public domain. (Diaz-Enriquez vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No.
168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

Application of — If the State alleges that lands belong to it, it is not excused from
providing evidence to support this allegation; this specially applies when the land in
question has no indication of being incapable of registration and has been exclusively
occupied by an applicant or his or her predecessor-in-interest without opposition-not
even from the State; when a land has been in the possession of the applicants and their
predecessor-in-interest since time immemorial and there is no manifest indication that
it is unregistrable, it is upon the State to demonstrate that the land is not alienable and
disposable. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

—      Payment of taxes is not conclusive evidence of ownership; however, it is good

indicia of possession in the concept of an owner, and when coupled with continuous
possession, it constitutes strong evidence of title. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval,
G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

—      Public lands may be disposed of through confirmation of imperfect or incomplete

titles; confirmation of title may be done judicially or through the issuance of a free
patent; when a person applies for judicial confirmation of title, he or she already holds
an incomplete or imperfect title over the property being applied for, after having been
in open, continuous, exclusive, and notorious possession and occupation from June 12,
1945 or earlier; the date “June 12, 1945” is the reckoning date of the applicant’s
possession and occupation, and not the reckoning date of when the property was
classified as alienable and disposable. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No.
170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

—      Secs. 6 and 7 thereof provides that the President, upon the recommendation of
the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, shall from time to time classify the lands of
the public domain into; (a) alienable or disposable; (b) timber; and (c) mineral lands
and mayat any time and in a like manner transfer such lands from one class to
another, for the purposes of their administration and disposition; for the purposes of
the administration and disposition of alienable or disposable public lands, the President,
upon recommendation by the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, shall from time
to time declare what lands are open to disposition or concession under this Act. (Rep. of
the Phils. vs. Heirs of Meynardo Cabrera, G.R. No. 218418, Nov. 08, 2017)

—      The burden of proving that the property is an alienable and disposable
agricultural land of the public domain falls on the applicant, not the State; the Office of
the Solicitor General, however, has the correlative burden to present effective evidence
of the public character of the land; in order to establish that an agricultural land of the
public domain has become alienable and disposable, an applicant must establish the
existence of a positive act of the government such as a presidential proclamation or an
executive order; an administrative action; investigation reports of Bureau of Lands
investigators; and a legislative act or a statute. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R.
No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

—      The 1987 Constitution classifies lands of the public domain into five (5)
categories; forest lands, agricultural lands, timber lands, mineral lands, and national
parks; in the absence of any prior classification by the State, unclassified lands of the
public domain assume the category of forest lands not open to disposition; in turn, the
classification of unclassified lands of the public domain, and the reclassification of those
previously classified under any of the categories set forth in the 1987 Constitution are
governed by Commonwealth Act No. 141 dated November 7, 1936, otherwise known as
the Public Land Act. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Heirs of Meynardo Cabrera, G.R. No. 218418,
Nov. 08, 2017)

—      The declaration of alienability must be through executive fiat, as exercised by the
Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. (Rep. of the
Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

—      The Public Land Act is a special law that applies only to alienable agricultural
lands of the public domain and not to forests, mineral lands, and national parks;
alienable and disposable lands into: (a) patrimonial lands of the State, or those
classified as lands of private ownership under Art. 425 of the Civil Code, without
limitation; and (b) lands of the public domain, or the public lands as provided by the
Constitution, but with the limitation that the lands must only be agricultural. (Rep. of
the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18, 2017)

—      When an applicant is shown to have been in open, continuous, exclusive, and
notorious possession of a land for the period required by law, he or she has acquired an
imperfect title that may be confirmed by the State; the State may not, for the simple
reason that an applicant failed to show documents which the State is in the best
position to acquire, indiscriminately take an occupied property and unjustly and self--
servingly refuse to acknowledge legally recognized rights evidenced by possession,
without violating due process; the burden of evidence lies on the party who asserts an
affirmative allegation. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Noval, G.R. No. 170316, Sept. 18,
2017)

Entitlement to agricultural lands of the public domain — The Court of First

Instance did not recognize, expressly or impliedly, that private petitioners’
predecessors-in-interest occupied and cultivated the property for more than 30 years
since 1915; it also did not declare petitioners’ predecessors-in-interest as the ipso
jure owners of the same; its decision cannot bar the filing of a subsequent free patent
application over the property; entitlement to agricultural lands of the public domain
requires compliance with the provisions of Commonwealth Act No. 141, otherwise
known as the Public Land Act. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Extrinsic fraud — Sec. 91 of the Public Land Act provides the automatic cancellation of
the applications filed on the ground of fraud and misrepresentation; only extrinsic fraud
may be raised as a ground to “review or reopen a decree of registration”; extrinsic
fraud, defined; petitioners failed to establish that private respondents committed
extrinsic fraud and misrepresentation. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11,
2017)
Free patents — While it is true that “a title emanating from a free patent which was
secured through fraud does not become indefeasible because the patent from whence
the title sprung is itself void,” petitioners are not the proper parties to bring an action
for the cancellation of free patents and certificates of title; the validity or invalidity of
free patents granted by the government and the corresponding certificates of title is a
matter between the grantee and the government; purpose of the rule. (Taarvs. Lawan,
G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Homestead patent — The applicant of a homestead must be a “citizen of the

Philippines over the age of eighteen years, or the head of a family”; he must prove
compliance with the residency and cultivation requirements under Chapter IV of Public
Land Act; under the Constitution, only 12 hectares of agricultural land of the public
domain may be acquired through homestead. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct.
11, 2017)

Judicial legalization or judicial confirmation of imperfect or incomplete

titles –– Any application for confirmation of title under C.A. No. 141 already concedes
that the land is previously public; for a person to perfect one’s title to the land, he or
she may apply with the proper court for the confirmation of the claim of ownership and
the issuance of a certificate of title over the property; this process is also known as
judicial confirmation of title; Sec. 48(b) of C.A. No. 141, as amended by P.D. No. 1073,
states who can apply for judicial confirmation of title. (Rep. of the Phils. vs. Sps. Go,
G.R. No. 197297, Aug. 02, 2017)

—      Judicial legalization or judicial confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles is

governed by Sec. 48 of the Public Land Act, as amended by R.A. No. 3872 and P.D. No.
1073; the Court made an important qualification regarding the registration of lands
through judicial confirmation of imperfect title, thus: If the mode is judicial confirmation
of imperfect title under Sec. 48 (b) of the Public Land Act, the agricultural land subject
of the application needs only to be classified as alienable and disposable as of the time
of the application, provided the applicant’s possession and occupation of the land dated
back to June 12, 1945, or earlier. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Judicial legislation and administrative legalization — Both judicial legalization and

administrative legalization involve agricultural lands of the public domain and require
“continuous occupation and cultivation either by the applicant himself or through his
predecessors-in-interest for a certain length of time”; judicial legalization or judicial
confirmation and free patent, distinguished; petitioners chose to apply for free patents.
(Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Lands of the public domain — Lands of the public domain, unless declared otherwise
by virtue of a statute or law, are inalienable and can never be acquired by prescription;
no amount of time of possession or occupation can ripen into ownership over lands of
the public domain; all lands of the public domain presumably belong to the State and
are inalienable. (Diaz-Enriquez vs.  Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

—      The burden of proof in overcoming 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; to overcome this presumption, incontrovertible evidence must be
established that the land subject of the application (or claim) is alienable or disposable.
(Diaz-Enriquez vs. Dir. of Lands, G.R. No. 168065, Sept. 06, 2017)

Lease  — The third mode of disposition of agricultural lands of the public domain is
through a lease; the government can only award the right to lease through an auction,
the procedure of which shall be the same as that prescribed for sales patents; an
inherent condition of the lease is that the lessee should have cultivated 1/3 of the land
“within five years after the date of the approval of the lease”; requirements under the
Constitution. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922, Oct. 11, 2017)

Reversion proceedings  — A land registration proceeding is the manner through

which an applicant confirms title to real property; in this proceeding, the applicant
bears the burden of overcoming the presumption of State ownership; the applicant is
bound to establish, through incontrovertible evidence, that the land sought to be
registered had been declared alienable or disposable through a positive act of the State.
(Rep. of the Phils. vs. Heirs of Meynardo Cabrera, G.R. No. 218418, Nov. 08, 2017)

Sales patents — Sales patents are governed by Chapter V of the Public Land Act;
requirements; only 12 hectares of agricultural land of the public domain may be
acquired through a sales patent; the Public Land Act authorized domestic corporations
to apply for sales patents over agricultural lands. (Taarvs. Lawan, G.R. No. 190922,
Oct. 11, 2017)

Sales Patent is a patent issued for the type of application covering lands of the public
domain for agricultural purposes as stipulated in Chapter V of the Public Land Act and
sold at public auction thru sealed bidding.

Sales Patent  under Chapter IX of the Public Land Act pertains to Classification and
Concession of Public Lands Suitable for Residence, Commerce and Industry (Lease
and Sale)

Sales Patent under Republic Act. No. 730 pertains to Direct Sale of Residential Lands
without Public Bidding.