G.R. No. 50340 - Director of Lands vs. Court of Appeals

The case involves an application for the registration of 291 hectares of land located on both sides of the Sorsogon-Albay national highway at Barrios Salvacion and Esperanza, Pilar, Sorsogon.
Initially, the Court of Appeals denied the registration application in 1977; however, it later reversed its decision in 1979 by granting the application.
The Director of Lands, as petitioner, appealed the 1979 resolution, challenging the registerability of the land under section 48(b) of the Public Land Law as amended by Republic Act No. 1942.

On March 13, 1952, Tomas Cevallos, a Filipino citizen, and his sister, Alberta Cevallos Vda. de Vasquez, a Spanish citizen, sold five lots (totaling 291.5 hectares) to Soledad Fajardo Vda. de Salazar for P50,000.
The deed of sale did not clarify how the Cevalloses acquired the land since they did not hold any Spanish title.
On July 30, 1965, more than thirteen years later, Soledad Salazar allegedly sold the said lots to her four children—Jose, Jesus, Pedro, and Aurora Salazar—for only P20,000.
Subsequent tax declarations were secured by the Salazar siblings for their respective lots, indicating differential assessments and uses (cultivated areas for coconuts, rice, abaca versus uncultivated or cogon land).

The application filed on September 22, 1965 alleged occupation by their overseer, Nicolas Millevo, although his alleged possession was never substantiated at the hearing.
Numerous occupants (both family overseers and private oppositors) were engaged in cultivating and residing on the different lots:

Lot 1 (75.99 hectares) was occupied by at least eleven farmers actively engaged in cultivating upland rice, coconuts, fruit trees, and root crops.
Lot 2 (37.5 hectares) was noted to have a number of occupants including farmers who also claimed longstanding possession and were affected by alleged deprivation of coconut plantations.
Lot 3 (121.3 hectares) had twenty farmers cultivating small portions averaging around two and a half hectares and using adjacent portions as cattle ranches.
The remaining Lots 4 and 5 were documented in the tax declarations with designated crops (such as abaca, upland rice) and some portions classified as uncultivated.

Reports, including that of Land Inspector Baldomero Esperida (dated May 21, 1968), confirmed improvements and the established possession of the land by private occupants who had cultivated and resided on the land for a long period, asserting that occupation was “open, continuous, peaceful and exclusive, and in concept of owner.”

A critical aspect of the record is that the land was declared alienable and disposable by the Director of Forestry only on April 28, 1961. Prior to that, it was part of the forest zone.
Exhibits and testimonies (including those from oppositors such as Felix Granadillos, Apolinar Bolanos, and others) indicated that the Bureau of Forestry had consistently maintained that the land was forestal and thus not eligible for private ownership or homestead registration until declassification.
Tax declarations, receipts, and other documentary evidence (some of which pertained not to the disputed parcel) were presented but failed to conclusively establish the right of ownership due to inconsistencies and irrelevancies.

The Director of Lands argued that the Appellate Court erred in classifying the land without giving due regard to its status as forestal land until its declassification in 1961.
It was contended that possession by the Salazar family and their predecessors prior to April 28, 1961, could not qualify for the thirty-year requirement under section 48(b) once the land was released for agricultural purposes.
Additionally, the evidence did not prove continuous, uninterrupted, open, exclusive, and notorious possession by the Salazars or their predecessors over the 291 hectares, particularly given the discrepancies in the area declared and improvements recorded over time.

Whether the 291-hectare tract of land, originally part of the forest zone and declared only alienable and disposable on April 28, 1961, is registerable under section 48(b) of the Public Land Law as amended by Republic Act No. 1942.
Whether the prior possession or occupation of the land by the Salazar family and their predecessors qualifies them for registration under the thirty-year requirement stipulated in section 48(b), especially considering that their possession allegedly commenced before the land’s declassification from its forestal status.
Whether the evidence presented—including tax declarations, receipts, and various testimonies—sufficiently establishes continuous, uninterrupted, open, exclusive, and notorious possession in the concept of ownership by the Salazars over the entire 291 hectares.