GR 198277; (February, 2021) (Digest)
G.R. No. 198277 , February 08, 2021
Republic of the Philippines, Petitioner, vs. Philippine National Police, represented by its Provincial Director, Jaime Calungsod, Jr., Respondent.
FACTS
On May 6, 2003, the Philippine National Police (PNP) filed an application for land title registration over Lot Nos. 713-A to 713-F of the Iba Cadastre before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Iba, Zambales. The PNP submitted a tracing cloth plan, technical descriptions, an approved sketch plan, and tax declarations. The RTC granted the application, finding the PNP possessed the qualifications for registration. The Republic, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), appealed, arguing the lots were unregistrable as they were reserved for military purposes under Executive Order No. 87 dated November 6, 1915, and no evidence showed a positive government act withdrawing the land from such reservation. The Court of Appeals (CA) dismissed the appeal, finding the OSG erroneously relied on a CENRO Report not presented during trial and noting the subdivision plan bore an annotation that the survey falls within alienable and disposable land, which it deemed substantial compliance.
ISSUE
Whether or not the PNP has proven that the subject lots are alienable and disposable lands of the public domain.
RULING
No. The Supreme Court granted the petition, reversed the CA Decision, and dismissed the PNP’s application. The Court held that an applicant for land registration must prove the land is alienable and disposable. The PNP failed to present the requisite evidence. The annotation on the subdivision plan was insufficient. The prevailing rule at the time of the application’s filing and the RTC decision required a DENR certification as substantial compliance, which the PNP did not submit. Furthermore, the subsequent rule in Republic v. T.A.N. Properties, Inc., requiring a CENRO or PENRO certification and a copy of the original DENR classification declaring the land alienable and disposable, applies retroactively to pending applications. The PNP presented no evidence, such as a DENR Secretary’s declaration or executive act, showing the lots had been released from their classification as a military reservation and declared alienable and disposable. Consequently, the PNP failed to overcome the presumption that the lands belong to the inalienable public domain.