Land titles and Deeds Lecture

1. Land, Titles and Deeds
Subtitle

2. LAND TITLE
▪ is the evidence of the right of the owner or the
extent of his interest and by which means he
can maintain control and as a rule, assert right
to exclusive possession and enjoyment of the
property.

3. LAND REGISTRATION
▪ a judicial or administrative proceeding, whereby
a person’s claim of ownership over a particular
land is determined and confirmed or recognized,
so that such land and the ownership thereof
may be recorded in a public registry.

4. LAND REGISTRATION
▪ In its strictest acceptation, it is the entry made in
the property registry, which records solemnly
and permanently the right of ownership and
other real rights (Cheng v Genato, G.R. No.
129760)

5. SYSTEM OF REGISTRATION IN THE
PHILIPPINES
1. System under the Spanish Mortgage Law
2. Torrens System
3. System of Recording for Unregistered Land
(PEÑA, supra at p. 4)

6. SYSTEM OF REGISTRATION IN THE
PHILIPPINES
Note: Lands granted under Spanish Mortgage
Law, which are not yet covered by certificate of
title under Torrens System are considered as
unregistered lands (P.D. 1529, Sec. 3).

7. Laws Implementing Land Registration
1. Property Registration Decree (P.D. 1529, as
amended);
2. Cadastral Act (Act 2259, as amended);
3. Public Land Act (C.A. 141, as amended);
4. Emancipation Patent or CARP of 1972 (P.D. 27);
5. Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988
(R.A. 6657, as amended); and
6. Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or IPRA of 1997
(R.A. 8371).

8. Laws Implementing Land Registration
Note: P.D. 1529 amended and codified the laws
to registration of property, in order to facilitate the
effective implementation of said laws
It supersedes all other laws related to registration
of property.

9. Purpose of Land Registration
1. To quiet title to land and to stop forever any
question as to the legality of said title.
2. To serve as a constructive notice to all persons
from the time of such registering, filing or entering
of every conveyance, mortgage, lease, lien,
attachment, order, judgment, instrument or entry
affecting registered land.
3. To notify and protect the interests of strangers to
a given transaction who may be ignorant thereof.

10. Purpose of Land Registration
4. To enable every registered owner and every
subsequent purchaser of registered land taking a
certificate of value and in good faith to hold the same
free from all encumbrances, except those registered.
5. To prevent fraudulent transactions. No voluntary
instrument shall be registered by the Register of
Deeds, unless the owner’s duplicate certificate is
presented with such instrument.
6. To enable the Register of Deeds to Maintain a
repository of all instruments affecting registered land.

11. Purpose of Land Registration
7. To issue a certificate of title to the owner,
which shall be the best evidence of his
ownership of land described therein.
8. To guarantee the integrity of land titles and to
protect their indefeasibility once the claim of
ownership is established and recognized.

12. Purpose of Land Registration
Note: Registration does not vest title. It is a mode of acquiring
ownership but is merely evidence of such title over a particular
property. It does not give the holder any better right than what
he actually has, especially if the registration was done in bad
faith. The effect is that it is as if no registration was made at all.
Registration does not give the registrant a better right than what
he had prior to registration.
Where a document so registered is invalid or legally defective,
registration will not in any way render invalid or cure its defect.

13. Original Registration vs. Subsequent
Registration
▪ Original R. - the right of ownership or title to
land is for the first time made of public record
under any of the existing systems of
registration.
▪ Subsequent R. - any transaction covering an
originally registered land is recorded in the
Register of Deeds.

14. Effects of Registration
1. Registration in the public registry is notice to the
whole world.
2. The act of registration is the operative act to
convey or affect the land insofar as third person
are concerned; and
3. While registration operates as a notice of the
deed, contract or instrument to others, it does not
as to its validity nor converts an invalid instrument
into a valid one; neither does it recognize a valid
and subsisting interest in the land.

15. Nature of Land Registration
▪ Judicial proceedings for the registration of land
throughout the Philippines shall be in rem and
shall be based on the generally accepted
principles underlying the Torrens system.
▪ Jurisdiction in rem cannot be acquired unless
there be a constructive seizure of the land
through publication and service of notice.

16. Burden of Proof
▪ The burden of proof in land registration cases
rests on the applicant who must show clear,
positive and convincing evidence that his
alleged possession and occupation were of the
nature and duration required by law. Bare
allegations, without more, do not amount to
preponderant evidence that would shift the
burden to the oppositor.

17. Regalian Doctrine (Jura Regalia)
▪ SECTION 2. All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal,
petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy,
fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural
resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural
lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated. The
exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be
under the full control and supervision of the State. The State may
directly undertake such activities, or it may enter into co-production,
joint venture, or production-sharing agreements with Filipino citizens,
or corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of whose
capital is owned by such citizens. Such agreements may be for a
period not exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for not more than
twenty-five years, and under such terms and conditions as may be
provided by law. In cases of water rights for irrigation, water supply,
fisheries, or industrial uses other than the development of water
power, beneficial use may be the measure and limit of the grant. (Sec.
2, Art 12, 1987 Constitution)

18. Regalian Doctrine (Jura Regalia)
▪ In essence, the Regalian doctrine espouses that lands not
appearing to be clearly under private ownership are generally
presumed to form part of the public domain belonging to the
State. (G.R. No. 213207. February 15, 2022)
▪ EXCEPTIONS - any land under native title, or those that
should have been in possession of an occupant and of his
predecessors-in-interest since time immemorial. Such
possession would justify the presumption that the land had
never been part of the public domain or that it had been
private property even before the Spanish Conquest.

19. Regalian Doctrine Does Not Negate
Negative Title
▪ When as far back as testimony or memory
goes, the land has been held by individuals
under a claim of private ownership, it will be
presumed to have been held in the same way
before the Spanish conquest.

20. Title
▪ The right of the owner or the extent of his
interest and by means of which he can maintain
control, and as a rule, assert his right to the
exclusive possession and enjoyment of the
property.

21. Certificate of Title
▪ A mere evidence of ownership. It is not a
source of right but merely confirms or records a
title already existing and vested.

22. Title vs. Certificate of Title
▪ Title - Constitutes a just cause of exclusive
possession of which is the foundation ownership
of property.
▪ Certificate of Title - mere evidence of ownership,
not the title to the land itself.

23. Modes of Acquiring Title
1. Public Grant - by administrative process, the
government transfers land to a private
individual by the issuance of sales patent or
special patent.
No public land can be acquired by private
persons without any grant, express or implied,
from the government.

24. Modes of Acquiring Title
2. Reclamation - it is the method of filing submerged land
by deliberate acts and reclaiming titles thereto.
Under R.A. 1899, also known as An Act Authorizing The
Reclamation of Foreshore Lands by Chartered Cities
and Municipalities (June 22, 1957), the National
government granted to all municipalities and chartered
cities the authority to undertake and carry out at their own
expense the reclamation by dredging, filling, or other
means, of any foreshore lands bordering them. Any and all
such land reclaimed will become property of the respective
municipalities or chartered cities; but the new foreshore
along the reclaimed areas shall continue to become
property of the National Government.

25. Modes of Acquiring Title
▪ Note: Under R.A. 1889, Foreshore lands should
not be construed to include submerged areas.

26. Modes of Acquiring Title
3. Acquisitive Prescription - must be in the concept
of an owner (Civil Code, Art. 525). A person
acquires land title by acquisitive prescription if has
been in open, continuous, exclusive and notorious
possession for a period prescribed by law.
▪ Ordinary Prescription - possession in good faith
and with just title for ten (10) years. (Civil Code, Art.
1134)
▪ Extraordinary Prescription - adverse possession
without need of title or good faith for thirty (30)
years (Civil Code, Art. 1137)

27. Modes of Acquiring Title
No title to registered land in derogation of the title of
the registred owner shall be acquired by prescription
or adverse possession (P.D. 1529, Sec. 47).
Open, continuous and exclusive possession of land
classified as alienable and disposable for at least
thirty years segregates the land from the public
domain and ipso jure converts the same into private
property.

28. Modes of Acquiring Title
Note: Just title means “with color of title and good
faith” or con justotitulo y buenafe.
However, when a parcel of land is already
registered under the Torrens System, prescription
does not run against it. A title, once registered,
cannot be defeated even by adverse, open and
notorious possession.

29. Modes of Acquiring Title
4. Descent or Devise
a. By Descent - acquired by virtue of hereditary
succession to the estate of a deceased owner.
b. By Devise - succession need not be in favor of
a relative.

30. Modes of Acquiring Title
5. Accretion - To the owners of lands adjoining the
banks of rivers belong the accretion which they
gradually received from the effects of the current
of the waters.
The alluvial property obtained due to accretion is not
automatically covered by a Torrens Title. Ownership
of a piece of land is one thing, and registration under
the Torrens system is quite another. To be covered
by the Torrens title, the alluvial property must be
placed under the operation of the registration laws.

31. Modes of Acquiring Title
6. Voluntary Transfer - The transfer is given by
the voluntary execution of a deed of
conveyance in certain prescribed form,
completed by the recording or registration
thereof because registration is the operative
act that binds and affects third persons.
Nonetheless, the contract is binding between
parties, their heirs, assignees and successors
in interest.

32. Source:
▪ San Beda Memory Aid 2018 – Civil Law
▪ https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1
987-constitution/