G.R. No. L-6958 / March 29, 1912
GABRIELA SANTOS, petitioner-appellee, vs. THE DIRECTOR OF LANDS, opponent-appellant.

FACTS

Gabriela Santos applied for the registration of five parcels of land in Rizal. The Director of Lands (through the district engineer) opposed the registration of three parcels (A, B, and C), contending that strips of land 2.70 and 3.30 meters wide along their sides bordering the “Pasig-Montalban” highway (Calzada de Mabini) and its extension should be segregated. The government argued these strips were part of the public highway, which by law (a royal order of 1868) should have a width of 12.90 meters, but the roads in their current state measured only 7.30 meters and 6.70 meters wide, respectively. The Court of Land Registration overruled the opposition and ordered the registration of all parcels in Santos’s name. The government appealed.

ISSUE

Whether the strips of land claimed by the government to widen the highways to the prescribed legal width form part of the public domain and should be excluded from Santos’s registration application.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s decision, ordering the registration of the lands in Santos’s name. The Court upheld the trial court’s factual findings: (1) the royal order prescribing a 12.90-meter width for the highways was never complied with; (2) the boundaries of Santos’s parcels adjoining the highways had never been altered, and the government had never previously sought to widen the roads by taking land from adjoining properties; and (3) Santos acquired the land by inheritance, and she and her predecessors had been in open, continuous, and peaceful possession as owners for over thirty years. Since the disputed strips never actually formed part of the highway, Santos’s possession could ripen into ownership. The government’s need to comply with the legal width for roads is not a lawful ground to deny registration; the proper remedy is to initiate expropriation proceedings under the Code of Civil Procedure, with due payment of just compensation, as mandated by Article 349 of the Civil Code.