DIRECTOR OF LANDS vs. COURT OF APPEALS

DIRECTOR OF LANDS vs. COURT OF APPEALS

   November 17, 2017       FJ

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DIRECTOR OF LANDS vs. COURT OF APPEALS

G.R. NO. 83609

OCTOBER 26, 1989

PONENTE: GRIÑO-AQUINO, J.

FACTS:

           

On July 20, 1976, Ibarra and Amelia Bisnar, the private respondents, claimed to be the owners of two parcels of lands situated in Capiz and filed a joint application for registration of title to the said lands.

On December 16, 1976, the Director of Lands and Bureau of Forest Development opposed the application on the grounds that the respondents were not applicants neither predecessors-in-interest to possess sufficient title to acquire ownership and that the lands in question are a portion of the public domain belonging to the State.

On February 24, 1977, the respondents filed an amended application which was approved on March 14, 1977.

The CFI of Capiz held on granting the application for confirmation and registration of the two parcels of land filed by private respondents. It found that applicants and their predecessors-in-interest have been in open, public, continuous, peaceful and adverse possession of the subject parcels of land under bona fide claims of ownership for more than eighty (80) years (not only 30) prior to the filing of the application for registration, introduced improvements on the lands by planting coconuts, bamboos and other plants, and converted a part of the land into productive fishponds.

The respondent court affirmed the decision in toto, and it held that the classification of the lots as timberland by the Director of Forestry cannot prevail in the absence of proof that the said lots are indeed more valuable as forest land than as agricultural land. Thereafter, the Director of Lands through the OSG filed a petition before this Court for the review of the said decision.

ISSUE:           

Whether the lots in question may be registered under Section 48(b) of CA 141

HELD:

No. The lots cannot be registered under Section 48(b) of CA 141.

A positive act of the government is needed to declassify land which is classified as forest and to convert it into alienable or disposable land for agricultural or other purposes. A parcel of forest land is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Bureau of Forestry and beyond the power and jurisdiction of the cadastral court to register under the Torrens System

Hence, Section 48 (b) of Commonwealth Act No. 141, as amended, applies exclusively to public agricultural land. Forest lands or areas covered with forests are excluded.