GR 247816 CAguioa (Digest)
G.R. No. 247816 , July 15, 2020
SPOUSES DIONISIO DUADUA SR. AND CONSOLATRIZ DE PERALTA DUADUA, SUBSTITUTED BY THEIR HEIRS GLICERIA DUADUA TOMBOC, DIONISIO P. DUADUA, JR., BIENVENIDO P. DUADUA, PAUL P. DUADUA, SAMUEL P. DUADUA, AND MOISES P. DUADUA, PETITIONERS, VS. R.T. DINO DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION REPRESENTED BY ITS PRESIDENT ROLANDO T. DINO, SPOUSES ESTEBAN FERNANDEZ, JR. AND ROSE FERNANDEZ, AND THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HIGHWAYS REPRESENTED BY ENGR. TOMAS D. RODRIGUEZ AS THE OFFICER-IN-CHARGE-DISTRICT ENGINEER OF SULTAN KUDARAT ENGINEERING DISTRICT, ISULAN, SULTAN KUDARAT, RESPONDENTS.
FACTS
The petitioners, heirs of the original homestead patentees, sold a parcel of land acquired via a homestead patent to respondent R.T. Dino Development Corporation in 1996. A little over three years after the sale, the petitioners expressed their desire to repurchase the land.
ISSUE
Whether the petitioners have a right to repurchase the homestead land under Section 119 of Commonwealth Act No. 141 (The Public Land Act).
RULING
The concurring opinion agrees with the ponencia’s grant of the petition, upholding the petitioners’ right to repurchase under Section 119 of C.A. 141. The petitioners complied with the condition that the repurchase be made within five years from the date of conveyance. However, the opinion broadens the context by discussing the retroactive repeal of restrictions under C.A. 141 by Republic Act No. 11231 (The Agricultural Free Patent Reform Act of 2019). R.A. 11231 lifted all encumbrances and conditions on the conveyance of homestead property, making agricultural free patent a title in fee simple, free from any restriction on encumbrance or alienation. The repeal applies retroactively, curing prior defective dispositions, but expressly preserves the right of redemption under Section 119 of C.A. 141 for transactions made in good faith prior to its effectivity. The opinion notes that while this liberalization may benefit patentees by enhancing land tradability, it also represents an unraveling of the safeguards intended to protect small farm owners from landlessness, a policy central to the homestead laws.