Question & AnswerQ&A (Act No. 700)
The Court of Land Registration is authorized to detail an examiner of titles appointed for one judicial district to perform duties in another district when it judges that the public interest will be served thereby.
Judges of the Court of Land Registration, the clerk or their deputies, and examiners of titles are entitled to actual and necessary traveling and subsistence expenses, with subsistence not exceeding two US dollars per day. If transportation includes subsistence, no per diem is paid for that portion of the journey.
The certificate of acknowledgment now includes the personal appearance before a notary public or authorized official, the oath of truthfulness by the signer(s), and the exhibition of a cedula certificate with details such as number, place of issue, and date.
The value of a subdivided portion is fixed by agreement between the applicant and the tax collector and proportioned to the value the portion bears to the whole tract assessed. If they disagree, the court decides the value. If the land has not been assessed, its market value is to be declared with sworn declarations from three disinterested persons.
The court may increase the valuation if, during the hearing, it appears that the declared value is too low.
The Court of Land Registration is granted the powers to inspect registries of property, receive consultations from registers of deeds, and hear and determine questions affecting the registration of instruments, similar to those conferred upon the president of the audiencia and judges of first instance under the Mortgage Law.
It was replaced with a form requiring personal appearance, acknowledgment as a free act and deed before a notary public or authorized official, and exhibition of cedula certificates with details for all parties involved.
The forms now include a space to indicate whether the grantee, mortgagee, or lessee is married and, if so, to whom.
Section one hundred and twenty-eight authorizes the Court of Land Registration to print and distribute free blank forms of application, rules and regulations, forms of deeds, mortgages, leases, or other useful information to the public to facilitate land registration.
The Act took effect on its passage, which is March 26, 1903.