G.R. No. 73246 March 2, 1993
DIRECTOR OF LANDS AND DIRECTOR OF FOREST DEVELOPMENT, petitioners, vs. INTERMEDIATE APPELLATE COURT AND J. ANTONIO ARANETA, respondents.

FACTS

The case involves an application for registration of a parcel of land known as Tambac Island in Lingayen Gulf, Bani, Pangasinan, with an area of 187,288 square meters. The initial application was filed by Pacific Farms, Inc. under the Land Registration Act. The Republic, through the Director of Lands, opposed, alleging the applicant lacked fee simple title, its predecessors did not possess the land for at least thirty years, and that, as a private corporation, it was disqualified from acquiring alienable lands of the public domain under the Constitution. The Director of Forest Development also opposed, alleging the land was within unclassified public land and thus inalienable. The application was later amended to change the applicant from Pacific Farms, Inc. to J. Antonio Araneta, without republication. The trial court adjudicated the property to Araneta, and the Intermediate Appellate Court affirmed the decision. During the Supreme Court proceedings, Araneta assigned his rights to Amancio R. Garcia, who then assigned them to Johnny A. Khonghun.

ISSUE

The more important issues are: 1) whether the presentation of the original tracing cloth plan is a mandatory requirement for registration; and 2) whether the land known as “Tambac Island” can be subject to registration, considering its classification.

RULING

The Supreme Court GRANTED the petition and REVERSED the decisions of the lower courts.
1. The submission of the original tracing cloth plan is a mandatory and statutory requirement of mandatory character. Failure to submit it is fatal to the application. The fact that a certified copy was presented and petitioners failed to object is immaterial, as the requirement cannot be waived. If the original was with the Land Registration Commission, the applicant could have retrieved it.
2. The land cannot be subject to registration. Reports from government land officers classified the property as “within the unclassified forest land” under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Forest Development. Under the Regalian doctrine, all lands of the public domain belong to the State, and lands not clearly within private ownership are presumed state property. A positive act of the Executive Department is required to classify or reclassify public lands into alienable or disposable agricultural lands. Courts have no authority to classify lands. Since the subject property remained unclassified, any possession by the applicant, however long, could not ripen into private ownership. The applicant failed to overcome the presumption that the land is part of the public domain. The amendment of the application from a corporation to an individual was seen as an attempt to evade constitutional disqualification, but the absence of republication for such an amendment was not a jurisdictional flaw. The application of Presidential Decree No. 1529 by the lower court was not erroneous, as it codified existing registration laws.