G.R. No. L-19547 January 31, 1967
SERAPIO DAUAN, petitioner and appellee, vs. THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES and the DIRECTOR OF LANDS, respondents and appellees. SIMON ILARDE, ROMUALDO ILARDE, LORD CALANGAN, SANTOS BAYSA and BASILIA TOMAS, respondents and appellants.

FACTS

The case involves a 14.25-hectare public land in Bambang, Sto. Domingo, Nueva Vizcaya. The land was originally applied for as a homestead by Jose Aquino. After his death, his children sold their rights to Serapio Dauan (appellee). Dauan himself filed Homestead Application No. 206623 on February 14, 1935. Subsequently, Dauan sold portions of his homestead rights to various appellants: to Simon Ilarde (one-half) on December 16, 1943; to Lord Calangan (4 hectares) and Basilia Tomas (3 hectares) on July 24, 1951. Calangan and Tomas later sold parts of their rights to Santos Baysa on March 28, 1955. All these sales were made without the prior approval of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources. A dispute arose when Dauan asked the Bureau of Lands to cancel the free patent applications filed by the appellants, claiming the sales were void for lack of the Secretary’s approval. The appellants contended the sales were valid because Dauan’s homestead application itself had never been approved by the Director of Lands, making the Secretary’s approval unnecessary under Section 20 of the Public Land Act ( Commonwealth Act No. 141 ). The Director of Lands and the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources ruled in favor of the appellants, finding that Dauan’s application had not been approved. Dauan did not appeal to the President but instead filed a petition for certiorari in the Court of First Instance of Nueva Vizcaya, which granted his petition, ruling that his application had been approved and thus the subsequent sales without the Secretary’s approval were null and void.

ISSUE

Whether the homestead application of Serapio Dauan (H.A. No. 206623) had been approved by the Director of Lands, thereby requiring the prior approval of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources for the subsequent sales of his homestead rights to the appellants to be valid under Section 20 of the Public Land Act.

RULING

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the lower court, holding that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to conclude that Dauan’s homestead application had been approved. The Court found that: (1) a 1941 decision of the Director of Lands dismissing a claim by Teodocia Escobedo against Dauan’s application inferred that Dauan had been allowed to enter the land, which under Section 13 of the Public Land Act is permitted only after application approval; (2) the “Transfer of Homestead Rights” documents executed in favor of appellants Calangan and Tomas, which were in the Bureau of Lands’ prescribed form, expressly recited that the application was “approved on January 28, 1941”; (3) Dauan’s possession of the land at the time of the conveyances indicated he had a right to it, which accrues only after application approval; and (4) Dauan possessed the qualifications under the law, and there is a presumption that the Director of Lands performed his official duty by approving a qualified application. The Court held that the respondent officials acted in excess of jurisdiction by insisting on the presentation of destroyed official records and ignoring this circumstantial evidence. Consequently, the conveyances to the appellants, made without the required prior approval of the Secretary, were declared null and void. The appellants were ordered to return possession of the land to Dauan upon the return of the purchase price they had paid. The Court noted that while such a void transfer can result in the cancellation of the homestead entry, that cancellation is not automatic and as long as the Government has not acted, Dauan’s rights remain.