Facts:

• The case involves an application for land registration filed by the Province of Camarines Sur.
• The application was opposed by the Director of Lands and Ciriaco Chunaco and Jose Aramburo.
• The main issue is whether the land in question should be registered in the name of the Province of Camarines Sur or in the name of the oppositors-appellants.

Issue:

• (Unlock)

Ruling:

• The court denied the application for land registration by the Province of Camarines Sur and declared the land in question as public land reserved for the Camarines Sur Agricultural School.
• The court ruled in favor of the Director of Lands an...(Unlock)

Ratio:

• The court ruled that the failure of the appellants' predecessors in interest to legalize their possession of the land caused it to revert back to the government.
• The court cited previous cases that established the requirement of legalizing possession through possessory information proceedings for the grant of title from the Spanish Government.
• The court held that the constitutional provision against ex post facto laws or bills of attainder only applies to criminal proceedings and not to civil proceedings that affect private rights retrospectively.
• The court emphasized that to justify judicial confirmation of title to a public agricultural land, the claimant must prove actual and physical occupation of the land, and the possession must be continuous, open, exclusive, notorious, adverse, and under a bona fide claim of ownership.
• The court found the evidence presented by the appellants to be unsatisfactory in proving the required possession.
• The court dismissed the appellants' arg...continue reading