SC lets government repossess Mindoro property

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) recently granted a petition of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) affirming a 2005 regional trial court decision allowing the government to repossess a piece of land in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

The SC decision, penned by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, affirmed the findings of the Land Management Bureau (LMB) that the 5.37-hectare land, which was registered in the name of a private individual, Marcelino Manipon, in 1957, was not alienable and disposable as it had been reserved by Proclamation No. 809 dated June 4, 1935 for the exclusive use of the non-Christian Paitan Mangyan tribe in Oriental Mindoro.

The SC earlier ordered the reinstatement of the trial court ruling on Aug. 2, 2005 that allowed the government to repossess the property. 

Based on Manipon’s application for free patent over the 5.37-hectare land, the LMB, formerly the Bureau of Lands, issued on July 13, 1955 Free Patent No. V-16555 in his name. 

On March 5, 1957, the register of deeds of Oriental Mindoro issued Manipon an original certificate of title (OCT) over the property.

The LMB’s central office in Manila thereafter ordered an investigation and discovered that the land in Manipon’s name was not an alienable and disposable land of the public domain. 

Sometime in 1998, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) filed cancellation proceedings before the Calapan City RTC. At the time of the filing, Manipon had been dead for 10 years. 

It was discovered that Manipon had sold the 5.37-hectare land to spouses Florencio and Romelia de Castro to whom a transfer certificate of title (TCT) had been issued.

Since the De Castros did not answer the complaint filed by the OSG, the trial court issued a decision on Oct. 9, 2002 nullifying Manipon’s free patent and the couple’s TCT and ordering the reversion of the land to the government.

With no motion for reconsideration filed, the RTC granted the OSG’s motion for a writ of execution that was first served on the De Castros on Sept. 29, 2005 and finally implemented on July 20, 2006.

On March 15, 2007, the De Castro couple filed an annulment of judgment before the Court of Appeals (CA), saying they had not received a copy of the RTC decision and thus, the writ of execution in favor of the government was void.

On June 26, 2009, the appellate court denied the De Castros’ petition to annul judgment but nullified the trial court’s April 29, 2004 writ of execution.

The CA also ordered the RTC to serve a copy of its Oct. 9, 2002 decision that was the basis for the issuance of the writ.

On Sept. 30, 2009, the OSG filed a petition with the SC challenging the CA ruling.

In resolving the issue, the SC said a petition for annulment of judgment is a remedy granted only under exceptional circumstances where a party, without fault on his part, has failed to avail himself of the ordinary or other appropriate measures provided by law.