Case Digest (G.R. No. 238622)
Facts:
In Hon. Jeremias L. Dolino, et al. v. Court of Appeals, et al., G.R. No. 127002, April 29, 2003, the Supreme Court Third Division, Carpio Morales, J., writing for the Court, resolved a dispute over whether the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) must conduct surveys and render reports on certain lots so that petitioners may pursue land registration.Private corporations including Viking Management & Development Corp., Pine Grove Management & Development Corp., Kurit Management & Development Corp., and several other development corporations (collectively, respondents) trace their claims to parcels in the Cebu cadastre. In prior cadastral proceedings (Cadastral Case No. 10, LRC Record No. 9466), the Regional Trial Court (Branch 5, Cebu City) adjudicated several lots to private claimants by final judgments (e.g., Lots 13131, 13138, 13216), and directed issuance of decrees of registration. The Land Registration Authority (LRA) required survey plans prepared by the Land Management Sector (then Bureau of Lands, under the DENR) as prerequisite to issuing decrees and titles. Purchasers of adjudicated lots and other claimants repeatedly requested the DENR’s regional and land management offices to survey/resurvey the lots and submit reports, but the DENR refused or failed to act.
The DENR defended its inaction on the ground that the disputed parcels were within the area withdrawn from disposition by Presidential Proclamation No. 932 (PP No. 932) of June 29, 1992, which established the Kotkot and Lusaran River Watershed Forest Reserve. Respondents countered that they (or their predecessors-in-interest) had been in open, continuous and adverse possession since June 12, 1945 and that some lots were already the subject of final cadastral judgments, giving them vested private rights predating PP No. 932.
Respondents filed Special Civil Action No. CEB-15503 in the Cebu City RTC (Branch 58) seeking a writ of mandamus to compel petitioners Jeremias L. Dolino (Regional Director, DENR Region VII), Victoriano V. Rendon (OIC, CENRO), and Virgilio L. Laurel (OIC, Lands Management Bureau) to perform the surveys/resurveys and submit the requisite reports to the LRA. In its March 13, 1995 decision, the trial court granted mandamus, ordering the DENR to survey/resurvey the listed lots and render necessary reports so that decrees of registration and certificates of title could issue. The court reasoned that several parcels had acquired vested private ownership by virtue of final adjudication or long adverse possession.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the RTC in its October 22, 1996 decision, clarifying that ordering a survey and inspection is not equivalent to adjudicating ownership and that lots ought to be classified: (1) those already adjudicated by final judgment prior to PP No. 932; (2) those where claimants had already presented evidence of ownership in cadastral proceedings; and (3) those where claimants still had to establish private rights before the cadastral or land registration courts. The CA held that surveys are an essential requisite under Presidential Decree No. 1529 for land registration and that questions of ultimate ownership are factual matters for the cadastral/land registration co...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the Court of Appeals err as a matter of law in affirming the trial court’s finding that private respondents already acquired vested rights over the subject lands because of alleged admissions and prior adjudications?
- Did the Court of Appeals err in affirming the grant of a writ of mandamus to compel DENR to conduct surveys and submit reports, given that the survey of said lands is not a ministerial duty because the lands fall withi...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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