Title
Alberto vs. Heirs of Panti
Case
G.R. No. 251233
Decision Date
Mar 29, 2023
A 16,210-sqm land dispute arose when Alberto claimed ownership via adverse claim, citing a 1966 sale and implied trust. The Supreme Court ruled the adverse claim invalid, citing improper registration and violation of the five-year alienation prohibition under the free patent, affirming its cancellation.
adverse claim
cancellation
registered owners

Case Summary (G.R. No. 251233)

Factual Background

The controversy involved a 16,210-square-meter parcel of land designated as Lot No. 4276 and covered by Original Certificate of Title No. 157, issued as a free patent on January 15, 1965 in the name of the Heirs of Juan A. Panti; petitioner claimed that her parents, Congressman Jose M. Alberto and Mrs. Rosita U. Alberto, purchased the parcel in 1966 from the Heirs of Panti as evidenced by two acknowledgment receipts labeled as partial payments, and that petitioner’s family had been in open and peaceful possession, administering the property and paying real property taxes for decades prior to the annotation of an Affidavit of Adverse Claim on May 19, 2008.

Petition for Cancellation Filed in the RTC

The Heirs of Juan A. Panti filed a Petition for Cancellation of Affidavit of Adverse Claim in the RTC seeking annulment of the adverse claim annotated on OCT No. 157 and alleging that the Affidavit of Adverse Claim had no clear legal basis; petitioner opposed, asserting an ownership interest based on a 1966 purchase, possession for more than forty years, payment of taxes, and a resulting implied trust, and arguing that annotation of the adverse claim was proper to protect the Alberto family's rights.

Procedural History Through the Trial Court

The matter proceeded to trial after the Court of Appeals remanded the case in CA-G.R. CV No. 92294 for hearing and reception of evidence, the CA having earlier set aside an initial RTC decision for lack of a hearing; following pre-trial admissions that an adverse claim was annotated and that the Heirs retained possession of the owner’s duplicate title, the RTC conducted trial and, in a Decision dated January 8, 2018, denied the petition to cancel the adverse claim, finding that petitioner had a valid and lawful claim over the subject property.

Appeal to the Court of Appeals

The Heirs of Juan A. Panti appealed the RTC judgment to the Court of Appeals, which, in a Decision dated May 27, 2019, reversed the RTC and granted the petition to cancel the adverse claim, ordering the cancellation of Entry No. 106669 on OCT No. 157; the CA found that petitioner failed to show full payment of the purchase price and thus could not prove a perfected contract of sale, that the alleged conditional interest should have been registered under Section 52 of Act No. 496 (now Sec. 54 of PD 1529), that implied trusts were registerable under Sec. 68 of PD 1529 and therefore could not be registered as adverse claims under Sec. 70, and that prescription or adverse possession cannot divest registered title under Sec. 47 of PD 1529.

Reconsideration and Elevation to the Supreme Court

Petitioner moved for reconsideration before the CA, which denied the motion in a Resolution dated January 15, 2020, and thereafter filed a Petition for Review under Rule 45 in the Supreme Court challenging the CA’s cancellation of the adverse claim and arguing, among other contentions, that laches and long exclusive possession by her family justified the annotation and preservation of the adverse claim.

Parties' Contentions Before the Supreme Court

Petitioner urged that the Court of Appeals disregarded the extensive evidence of five decades of exclusive possession, continuous payment of property taxes from 1997 to 2008, the employment of a caretaker, fencing and cultivation of the land, and the Heirs’ long inaction constituting laches; the Heirs of Juan A. Panti replied that petitioner failed to prove full payment required to perfect a sale, that the adverse claim was founded on prescription and adverse possession which cannot affect registered title, and that implied trusts and conditional interests must be registered under the specific provisions of PD 1529 rather than by an adverse claim.

Issue Presented to the Supreme Court

The sole issue framed by the Court was whether there existed a legal basis to cancel the Affidavit of Adverse Claim annotated on OCT No. 157 when the petitioner asserted an alleged purchase, an implied trust, and long possession of the subject land against the registered title of the Heirs of Panti.

Supreme Court's Legal Analysis and Reasoning

The Supreme Court affirmed the CA’s analysis, observing that petitioner’s affidavit of adverse claim in 2008 rested on two theories: a supposed 1966 purchase culminating in an implied or resulting trust, and long possession with payment of taxes; the Court applied Sec. 70 of PD 1529 to explain the function and limited ambit of an adverse claim as an involuntary dealing to preserve interests where no other registration mechanism applies, but found that PD 1529 itself provided an alternative and proper mode of registration for implied or constructive trusts under Sec. 68; consequently, petitioner could not validly register a claimed interest grounded on an implied trust as an adverse claim under Sec. 70 because Sec. 68 required a sworn statement for registration of such trusts. The Court further relied on Sec. 47 of PD 1529 to reiterate the principle that title to registered land cannot be acquired by prescription or adverse possession against the registered

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