Case Digest: REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES v. RESTITUTO SARMIENTO

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES v. RESTITUTO SARMIENTO

518 SCRA 250 (2007), SECOND DIVISION

Restituto Sarmiento filed with the Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) an application for registration of a parcel of land. He claimed that he and his predecessors-in-interest have been in open, continuous, uninterrupted, adverse, and public possession of the lot in the concept of an owner for more than 30 years.

The Solicitor General, through the Prosecutor of Taguig, filed an opposition to Sarmiento‘s application for registration. One of the contentions is that the lot is part of the public domain belonging to the Republic of the Philippines, hence, not subject to private appropriation.

The MeTC granted Sarmiento‘s application for registration and ordered the issuance of decree of registration. The MeTC found that Sarmiento and his predecessors-in-interest have been in possession of the lot in the concept of an owner for more than 30 years. On appeal, the Court of Appeals (CA) held that the lot was sufficiently identified by the blue print copy of the plan and the technical description, the presentation of the original tracing cloth ceased to become indispensable for the grant of the application and affirmed the decision of the MeTC.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the parcel of land should be awarded to Sarmiento

HELD:

It is well settled that no public land can be acquired by private persons without any grant, express or implied, from the government, and it is indispensable that the person claiming title to public land should show that his title was acquired from the State or any other mode of acquisition recognized by law.

Judicial confirmation of imperfect title is, under the Public Land Act, one of the means by which public agricultural lands may be disposed. Under Section 48(b) of the Public Land Act, as amended by P.D. 1073, an applicant for confirmation of imperfect title must prove that (a) the land forms part of the disposable and alienable agricultural lands of the public domain; and (b) he has been in open, continuous, exclusive, and notorious possession and occupation of the land under a bona fide claim of ownership either since time immemorial or since June 12, 1945.

The absence or weakness of the evidence for Republic notwithstanding, Sarmiento still bears the burden of overcoming the presumption that the lot he seeks to register forms part of the alienable agricultural land of the public domain.