The law on Boracay (3-part series)

By Atty. Eduardo T. Reyes III

 

(This is the last of the 3-part series on the article entitled:  The law on Boracay).

To recall, in the case of SPS. ALBERTO and JOCELYN AZANA, 
v. CRISTOPHER LUMBO and ELIZABETH LUMBO-JIMENEZ, G.R. No. 157593             March 22, 2007, the Supreme Court recognized as competent proof of ownership the deeds of sale and tax declarations. However, as already mentioned, in  Heirs of Maravilla (G.R. No. 192132, September 14, 2016), because of Proclamation 1064, the SC had to change its ruling by declaring all sales involving Boracay lands as void save for those already with torrens titles.

 

For any interested person who wants to obtain a title over any tract of land in Boracay, the best thing to do is to ascertain from the DENR whether the portion he seeks to purchase is classified as alienable and disposable, and then he must ensure that he/ she is eligible to apply for a free patent or homestead title.

 

The lesson from these cases is that tax declarations would not be reliable unless the tax declarations can be traced back to June 12, 1945 or earlier in which case the declarant would be eligible to apply for judicial confirmation of imperfect or incomplete title as a mode of acquiring ownership.

 

(This principle, by the way, is applicable to all public lands in the Philippines and not only in Boracay).

 

Mere possession no matter how long, if such possession does not satisfy the requirements of “proof of cultivation” under the Public Land Act on acquisition by Homestead or Free Patent, or open, notorious, exclusive, etc. possession of alienable and disposable lands of the public domain since June 12, 1945 or earlier, will never ripen into ownership.

 

While for those banking on acquisitive prescription as ground for acquisition of ownership, this should be read in conjunction with the Malabanan doctrine (HEIRS OF MARIO MALABANAN v. REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, G.R. No. 179987, April 29, 2009) whereby the SC ruled that acquisitive prescription  (i.e, 10 years for possession in good faith or ordinary prescription and 30 years for possession not in good faith or extraordinary prescription) does not apply to public lands until and unless such public lands have been released via a Presidential Proclamation or an Act of Congress, that such public land is no longer intended for public use or for public service pursuant to Articles 421 and 422 of the New Civil Code, viz:

 

 Article 421. All other property of the State, which is not of the character stated in the preceding article, is patrimonial property.

 

Article 422. Property of public dominion, when no longer intended for public use or for public service, shall form part of the patrimonial property of the State.

 

 

Hence, as already stated earlier, reliance on mere tax declarations as basis for purchasing lands in Boracay would be improper. Instead, it is primordial that the purchaser must only deal with a Filipino who is qualified to apply for a Free or Homestead Patent or entitled to avail of Judicial Confirmation of Incomplete or Imperfect Title all pursuant to the Public Land Act as only they are eligible to secure titles over public land.

 

One acute caveat however should be observed, to wit:

 

The Public Land Act’s vision is to award lands to private individuals in order to encourage them to “cultivate” the said lands for as a matter of fact, a common requirement for applying for a free or homestead patent, is proof of having cultivated a portion of such land being applied for.

 

For Homestead Patents:

 

Section 11.  Public lands suitable for agricultural purposes can be disposed of only as follows, and not otherwise:

(1) For homestead settlement
(2) By sale
(3) By lease
(4) By confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles:

(a) By judicial legalization

(b) By administrative legalization (free patent).

Section 12. Any citizen of the Philippines over the age of eighteen years, or the head of a family, who does not own more than twenty-four hectares of land in the Philippines or has not had the benefit of any gratuitous allotment of more than twenty-four hectares of land since the occupation of the Philippines by the United States, may enter a homestead of not exceeding twenty-four hectares of agricultural land of the public domain.

Section 13. Upon the filing of an application for a homestead, the Director of Lands, if he finds that the application should be approved, shall do so and authorize the applicant to take possession of the land upon the payment of five pesos, Philippine currency, as entry fee. Within six months from and after the date of the approval of the application, the applicant shall begin to work the homestead, otherwise he shall lose his prior right to the land.

Section 14. No certificate shall be given or patent issued for the land applied for until at least one-fifth of the land has been improved and cultivated. The period within which the land shall be cultivated shall not be less than one or more than five years, from and after the date of the approval of the application. The applicant shall, within the said period, notify the Director of Lands as soon as he is ready to acquire the title. If at the date of such notice, the applicant shall prove to the satisfaction of the Director of Lands, that he has resided continuously for at least one year in the municipality in which the land is located, or in a municipality adjacent to the same, and has cultivated at least one-fifth of the land continuously since the approval of the application, and shall make affidavit that no part of said land has been alienated or encumbered, and that he has complied with all the requirements of this Act, then, upon the payment of five pesos, as final fee, he shall be entitled to a patent.

 

 

For Free Patents:

 

Section 44. Any natural-born citizen of the Philippines who is not the owner of more than twenty-four hectares and who since July fourth, nineteen hundred and twenty-six or prior thereto, has continuously occupied and cultivated, either by himself or through his predecessors-in-interest, a tract or tracts of agricultural public lands subject to disposition, or who shall have paid the real estate tax thereon while same has not been occupied by any person shall be entitled, under the provisions of this chapter, to have a free patent issued to him for such tract or tracts of such land not to exceed twenty-four hectares.

A member of the national cultural minorities who has continuously occupied and cultivated, either by himself or through his predecessors-in-interest, a tract or tracts of land, whether disposable or not since July 4, 1955, shall be entitled to the right granted in the preceding paragraph of this section: Provided, That at the time he files his free patent application he is not the owner of any real property secured or disposable under this provision of the Public Land Law.”

 

Worryingly, the reality in Boracay is that the improvements introduced by most claimants belie any “cultivation” as beach resorts and hotels, are definitely commercial establishments, not devoted to planting or sowing with the end  in view of harvesting crops. To “cultivate” means “to prepare and use for the raising of crops” (p. 304 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition).

 

This is perhaps the reason why the SC in DENR v. Mayor Yap, suggested for Congress to pass a law to deal with this predicament of the investors in Boracay. A special law must be enacted to address the plight of those who have heavily-invested in Boracay without negating the State’s duty to protect its natural resources, Boracay being one of its most precious ones.

 

As tourists start to trickle back into “paradise”, the government should likewise ensure that their hosts will have that sense of security in their possessory or ownership rights as it would surely bode well for the revival of the floundering business climate.

 

(The author is the senior partner of ET Reyes III & Associates- a law firm based in Iloilo City. He is a litigation attorney, a law professor and a law book author. His website is etriiilaw.com).