REGOLETA ALTMAN, petitioner-appellee, vs. THE COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE PHILIPPINE SQUADRON OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY, respondent-appellant.
G.R. No. L-5691
October 27, 1908

FACTS: By an executive order dated November 26, 1902, the U.S. President reserved a large tract of land near Olongapo for Naval purposes. On September 22, 1904, Regoleta Altman (petitioner-appellee) filed a petition with the Court of Land Registration seeking to be inscribed as owner of a 400-square-meter tract within this reservation. Altman claimed rights through Severino Salinas, who had continuously occupied the land from 1885 until June 25, 1903, when Altman succeeded to his rights. Altman had been in actual possession since then.

The government (through The Commanding Officer of the Philippine Squadron of the United States Navy, respondent-appellant) contended that the land was part of a Spanish naval reservation established in 1885. In 1885, the Spanish government prohibited construction and cultivation within a league of Olongapo, ordered a survey, marked boundaries, and initiated condemnation proceedings against private property within the designated naval reservation. The land in question fell within these boundaries.

Severino Salinas, an enlisted man in the Spanish navy, was initially located within the arsenal walls and later, by order of the naval authorities, was placed with his family upon the tract of land in question. He remained an enlisted man until 1899, living on the lot during that time. In 1903, Salinas conveyed a “house situated in No. 2, Calle Draper…together with the goods and plants therein, for the sum of seventy-pesos, Mexican” to Altman, with no mention of the land itself.

The Court of Land Registration ruled in favor of Altman, holding that the government failed to establish that any action was taken by the Spanish Government sufficient in law to sever this land from the public domain and close it to settlement.

ISSUE: Whether Severino Salinas occupied the subject land as owner for the ten-year period required by law (Section 41 of Act No. 190 , made applicable by Section 6 of Act No. 627 ) for the acquisition of full and complete title, which could then be transferred to petitioner Regoleta Altman.

RULING: No. The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Court of Land Registration.

The Court held that Salinas did not occupy the land as owner but merely by sufferance of the naval authorities. He was an enlisted man placed on the property by naval command, not a proprietor claiming rights. The naval authorities had the right to remove him at any time. This is evident from the fact that the Spanish government was simultaneously carrying out condemnation proceedings to acquire absolute ownership of properties within the reservation from those who claimed interests, indicating a clear intent not to create new proprietary rights for its personnel.

Furthermore, Salinas’s own actions demonstrated he did not consider himself the owner of the land. His 1903 conveyance to Altman only mentioned the “house,” goods, and plants, explicitly omitting any reference to the land. His later testimony and deed, executed during the trial in 1907, attempting to convey the land, were not given weight in determining the character of his possession from 1885 to 1903.

The Court clarified that the validity of the Spanish naval reservation was not the determinative factor. Regardless of its legal perfection, the land was taken possession of by Spanish naval authorities, occupants were divested, and a de facto reservation was established and maintained. Those who entered possession by permission of the authorities could not later question the government’s title.

Since Salinas never possessed the land as owner, he could not have acquired title by adverse possession, and thus, could not have transferred any such title to Regoleta Altman.