Photo from Unsplash | Nick Fewings
The following post does not create a lawyer-client relationship between Alburo Alburo and Associates Law Offices (or any of its lawyers) and the reader. It is still best for you to engage the services of a lawyer or you may directly contact and consult Alburo Alburo and Associates Law Offices to address your specific legal concerns, if there is any.
Also, the matters contained in the following were written in accordance with the law, rules, and jurisprudence prevailing at the time of writing and posting, and do not include any future developments on the subject matter under discussion.
AT A GLANCE:
No erasure, alteration, or amendment, shall be made upon the registration book after the entry of a certificate of title or of a memorandum thereon except by order of the proper Regional Trial Court. (Sec. 108, PD 1529) A decree entered cannot be considered as permanent if the limits of the land therein registered may be changed or the area of the land so registered can be altered by a subsequent adjudication by the court, based upon new evidence tending to show that the evidence introduced at the former hearing was incorrect.||| (Cuyugan v. Sy Quia, G.R. No. 7857, [March 27, 1913], 24 PHIL 567-573)
The law provides –
No erasure, alteration, or amendment, shall be made upon the registration book after the entry of a certificate of title or of a memorandum thereon except by order of the proper Regional Trial Court. (Sec. 108, PD 1529)
Jurisprudence provides –
The Government has adopted the Torrens system due to its being the most effective measure to guarantee the integrity of land titles and to protect their indefeasibility once the claim of ownership is established and recognized. If a person purchases a piece of land on the assurance that the seller’s title thereto is valid, he should not run the risk of being told later that his acquisition was ineffectual after all, which will not only be unfair to him as the purchaser, but will also erode public confidence in the system and will force land transactions to be attended by complicated and not necessarily conclusive investigations and proof of ownership. The further consequence will be that land conflicts can be even more abrasive, if not even violent. The Government, recognizing the worthy purposes of the Torrens system, should be the first to accept the validity of titles issued thereunder once the conditions laid down by the law are satisfied.
(Source: Casimiro Development Corporation, vs. Renato L. Mateo, G.R. No. 175485, July 27, 2011)
A decree entered by the Court of Land Registration cannot be considered as permanent if the limits of the land therein registered may be changed or the area of the land so registered can be altered by a subsequent adjudication by the court, based upon new evidence tending to show that the evidence introduced at the former hearing was incorrect.||| (Cuyugan v. Sy Quia, G.R. No. 7857, [March 27, 1913], 24 PHIL 567-573)
The remedy, under Section 108 of P.D. 1529, may be availed in the following circumstances:
A registered owner of other person having an interest in registered property, or, in proper cases, the Register of Deeds with the approval of the Commissioner of Land Registration, may apply by petition to the court upon the ground that
- the registered interests of any description, whether vested, contingent, expectant or inchoate appearing on the certificate, have terminated and ceased;
- or that new interest not appearing upon the certificate have arisen or been created;
- or that an omission or error was made in entering a certificate or any memorandum thereon, or, on any duplicate certificate;
- or that the same or any person on the certificate has been changed;
- or that the registered owner has married, or, if registered as married, that the marriage has been terminated and no right or interests of heirs or creditors will thereby be affected;
- or that a corporation which owned registered land and has been dissolved has not convened the same within three years after its dissolution; or upon any other reasonable ground;
and the court may hear and determine the petition after notice to all parties in interest, and may order the entry or cancellation of a new certificate, the entry or cancellation of a memorandum upon a certificate, or grant any other relief upon such terms and conditions, requiring security or bond if necessary, as it may consider proper;
Provided, however, that this section shall not be construed to give the court authority to reopen the judgment or decree of registration, and that nothing shall be done or ordered by the court which shall impair the title or other interest of a purchaser holding a certificate for value and in good faith, or his heirs and assigns, without his or their written consent. Where the owner’s duplicate certificate is not presented, a similar petition may be filed as provided in the preceding section.
All petitions or motions filed under this Section as well as under any other provision of this Decree after original registration shall be filed and entitled in the original case in which the decree or registration was entered.
Proceedings under Section 112 are summary in nature, contemplating corrections or insertions of mistakes which are only clerical but certainly not controversial issues. More importantly, resort to the procedure laid down in Section 112 would be available only if there is a “unanimity among the parties, or there is no adverse claim or serious objection on the part of any party in interest.” Such unanimity among the parties has been held to mean “the absence of serious controversy between the parties in interest as to the title of the party seeking relief under said section.”
(Heirs of Miguel Franco v. Court of Appeals and Heirs of Faustina Cabading, represented by Victoria Cabading, G.R. No. 123924. December 11, 2003)
Read also: How can a certificate of title be attacked?
Alburo Alburo and Associates Law Offices specializes in business law and labor law consulting. For inquiries regarding taxation and taxpayer’s remedies, you may reach us at info@alburolaw.com, or dial us at (02)7745-4391/0917-5772207.
All rights reserved.