G.R. No. 127002; April 29, 2003
HON. JEREMIAS L. DOLINO, et al., petitioners, vs. COURT OF APPEALS, VIKING MANAGEMENT & DEV. CORP., et al., respondents.

FACTS

This case involves multiple corporations seeking to register or perfect titles to various parcels of land in Cebu City. The factual backdrop is divided into two sets. First, for Lots 13131, 13138, and 13216, the Regional Trial Court, acting as a cadastral court, had already rendered final judgments adjudicating these lots to specific claimants. The adjudicatees subsequently sold the lots to several respondent corporations. The Land Registration Authority, as a prerequisite for issuing the corresponding decrees of registration, required a survey or resurvey report from the DENR’s Land Management Sector. The DENR officials, however, repeatedly failed or refused to act on the corporations’ requests for such surveys.
Second, for other lots (e.g., Lot 13158 and several lots in Sirao and Taptap), the respondent corporations, either as purchasers from claimants or as possessors themselves, anticipate needing similar DENR surveys to initiate or complete land registration proceedings. Their formal requests to the DENR for these surveys were also denied or ignored. The corporations filed a petition for mandamus to compel the DENR officials to perform the requested surveys.

ISSUE

Whether a writ of mandamus may issue to compel the DENR officials to conduct the survey or resurvey of the subject lots as required for land registration proceedings.

RULING

Yes, the DENR officials have a ministerial duty to conduct the surveys, and mandamus is the proper remedy to compel this performance. The Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals’ decision granting the writ. For the first set of lots already adjudicated by final judgment, the DENR’s duty is unequivocally ministerial. The cadastral court’s final orders for the issuance of decrees of registration necessitate the survey reports. The DENR officials cannot refuse to act based on their own opinion regarding the land’s alienability, as that issue has been conclusively settled by the final judgment of the cadastral court.
For the second set of lots, where registration proceedings are pending or yet to be initiated, the duty to survey is also ministerial. The Court clarified that the authority to determine the land’s alienable or disposable character and the applicant’s vested rights resides exclusively in the Regional Trial Court acting as a land registration court under P.D. No. 1529. The DENR’s survey function is a preliminary step that enables the proper court to assume jurisdiction and make that determination. Withholding the survey effectively precludes the courts from performing their judicial function. The government, through the Solicitor General or the Director of Lands, retains the right to oppose the registration applications and present its claims regarding inalienability during the court proceedings. Therefore, the DENR officials have no discretion to deny the survey requests and must be compelled by mandamus to perform their duty.