SECOND DIVISION
HEIRS
OF LETICIA LOPEZ- G.R.
No. 170539
CUEVAS,
represented by EMILIO
AYTONA,
JR., Present:
Petitioners,
QUISUMBING,
J.,
Chairperson,
-
versus - TINGA,
REYES,
LEONARDO-DE
CASTRO, and
REPUBLIC OF THE
Respondent.
Promulgated:
x
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
D E C I S I O N
Tinga, J.:
This Petition[1]
before the Court, dated
The
facts are as follows:
On
The
petition alleges:
x x x
3. That Leticia Lopez[-] Cuevas is one of the registered owners of land located at Cabusay, Labo, Camarines Norte covered under Transfer Certificate of Title No. 11356 registered at the [O]ffice of the Registry of Deeds of Camarines Norte on December 19, 1974, certified photocopy of the aforesaid title is hereto attached and marked Annex “B” and made an integral part of this petition;
4. That said title consists of Lot 1 with FIFTY THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR (50,584) square meters, [L]ot 2 with SIX HUNDRED AND FOUR (604) SQUARE METERS, Lot 3 with SIX HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SIX (676) SQUARE METERS, Lot 4 with ONE HUNDRED SIXTY NINE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED THIRTY SIX (169,236) SQUARE METERS, Lot 5 with FIVE HUNDRED EIGHTY FOUR THOUSAND [sic] FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE (584,465) SQUARE METERS, Lot 6 with SEVENTY SIX THOUSAND [sic] (76,572) SQUARE METERS, Lot 7 with EIGHTY THREE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT (83,448) SQUARE METERS, Lot 8 with TWENTY NINE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY TWO (29,182) SQUARE METERS, and Lot 9 with NINE HUNDRED TWENTY SIX (926) SQUARE METERS, more or less;
5. That since the said title was entrusted to herein petitioner for safekeeping, he had been in possession of the owner’s duplicate copy of said title and he kept the same in his files;
6. That, however, lately when petitioner looked for the said title in his files he discovered that the same was among those personal belongings which he could no longer be found up to this date thereby creating a conclusion that the same has been lost and already beyond recovery;
7. That the required Notice of Loss of said Title was sent to the Office of the Registry of Deeds as evidenced by its receiving stamp appearing on the said Affidavit and Notice of Loss, a copy of which is hereto attached and marked as Annex “C;”
8.
That the original copy of the said title
is intact and on file with the Office of the Registry of Deeds of Camarines
Norte as per Certification dated
9. That said Owner’s Duplicate Copy of the Transfer Certificate of Title [N]o. 11356 has not been delivered to any person or entity to secure payment or performance of any obligation whatsoever, nor any transaction any transaction or document relating to the same was presented for or pending registration in the office of the Registry of Deeds of Camarines Norte.
The
RTC, in an Order[5] dated
In its assailed Decision, the Court of Appeals reversed the
RTC’s order and declared void the new owner’s duplicate certificate of title
issued by authority of this order.
Petitioners insist that their copy of TCT No. 11356 was
lost and was not delivered to any third person or entity. They claim that the issuance of a new copy is
a necessary condition to the payment to them by the Land Bank of the
Philippines (LBP) of just compensation for the compulsory coverage of their
property under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) filed its Comment[6]
dated
In their Reply[8]
dated
The case at bar is merely for the replacement
of a lost owner’s duplicate certificate of title. As such, Section 109, Chapter X of
Presidential Decree No. 1529, which governs actions for the replacement of lost
duplicate certificates of title, applies.
The provision states:
Sec. 109. Notice and
replacement of lost duplicate certificate.—In case of loss or theft of an
owner’s duplicate certificate of title, due notice under oath shall be sent by
the owner or by someone in his behalf to the Register of Deeds of the province
or city where the land lies as soon as the loss or theft is discovered. If a
duplicate certificate is lost or destroyed, or cannot be produced by a person
applying for the entry of a new certificate to him or for the registration of
any instrument, a sworn statement of the fact of such loss or destruction may
be filed by the registered owner or other person in interest and registered.
Upon the petition of the
registered owner or other person in interest, the court may, after notice and
due hearing, direct the issuance of a new duplicate certificate, which shall
contain a memorandum of the fact that it is issued in place of the lost
duplicate certificate, but shall in all respects be entitled to like faith and
credit as the original duplicate, and shall thereafter be regarded as such for
all purposes of this decree.
The record reveals that in compliance with the
jurisdictional requirement that notice of the loss be sent to the Register of
Deeds of the province where the land lies, petitioners submitted Aytona’s
Affidavit of Notice of Loss[9] dated 28 November 2001, duly stamped
“Received” by the Registry of Deeds of Daet, Camarines Norte. They then
attached to their petition for the issuance of a new TCT Aytona’s affidavit of loss
which states that the title was entrusted to him but he later discovered that
it was among the personal belongings which he could no longer locate. The
relevant portions of the said affidavit state:
4. That since the same has been entrusted to me, I had been in possession of the Owner’s duplicate copy of said title and I kept the same in my files;
5. That however, lately when I look for the same in my files I discovered
that it was among those personal belongings which I could no longer locate and
despite diligent efforts in search of the said title, the same could no longer
be found up to this date [there by] creating in my mind a conclusion that the
same has been lost and already beyond recovery;
6. That said Owner’s duplicate copy of TCT#11356 has not been
delivered to any person of entity to secure payment of performance of any obligation
[whatsoever], nor any transaction in the office of the [R]egistry of Deeds of
Camarines Norte;[10]
To bolster the allegation that the certificate of title had
been lost, Aytona gave the following testimony:
Q: Do you have the title
in your possession right now?
A: I don’t have.
Q: Why?
A: The title was somewhat lost because when I was looking for the title I cannot find the title in my possession.
Q: What did you do after learning that said title has already been lost?
A: Well, I check with my wife and other relative if they borrowed it from me and I found out that the said title is not in their possession so they advised me to search on it and what I did was I still kept on searching for it and after that I really cannot find it anymore.
Q: For how long did you search?
A: More than a year.
Q: After exerting diligent effort to locate the same and search seem to be futile[,] what did you do next, if any?
A: I decided to execute an Affidavit of Loss of the title.[11]
We deem the foregoing evidence sufficient to prove the
loss of the owner’s duplicate copy of TCT No. 11356 and the consequent
entitlement of petitioners to the issuance of a new owner’s duplicate copy. After all, in civil cases such as the one at
bar, mere preponderance of evidence suffices. Preponderance of evidence is a
phrase which, in the last analysis, means probability of the truth.
It is evidence which is more convincing to the court as worthy of belief than
that which is offered in opposition thereto.[12]
In the
case of Strait Times, Inc. v. Court of Appeals[13]
cited by the OSG, the Court annulled the trial court’s decision granting a
petition for the issuance of an owner’s duplicate certificate of title because
there was clear proof that the same had not been lost but was in fact in the
possession of another person. Similarly
in Rexlon Realty Group, Inc. v. Court of Appeals,[14]
also relied upon by the OSG, there was no proof adduced to support the
actual loss of the owner’s duplicate copies of the TCTs in question. Hence, the
Court said that the trial court did not acquire jurisdiction and the new titles
issued in replacement thereof were void.
Verily, the issuance of a new owner’s duplicate of TCT No.
11356 is the only means by which petitioners can attain their ultimate
objective of receiving just compensation for the parcels of land covered by the
title which had been compulsorily taken by the government for agrarian reform purposes.
To deny them the remedy under Section 109 of P.D. No. 1529 would leave them no
recourse because the submission of the owner’s duplicate of the title to the
LBP is a condition to the payment of just compensation.
In this
regard, we deem this an opportune time to steer the course which petitioners
should take to finally put order to their property. P.D. No. 1529, specifically Section 49 thereof,
provides the procedure by which the distinct parcels of land embraced by
petitioners’ title can be issued separate titles.[15] Section 58 of the same law also lays down the
procedure in cases such as the one at bar where the conveyances involve only
certain portions of land described in a certificate of title.[16]
WHEREFORE, the petition is GRANTED. The Decision of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CV No.
77287, dated 28 February 2005, and its
Resolution dated 27 October 2005 are REVERSED
and SET ASIDE. The Order of the
Regional Trial Court of Labo, Camarines Norte, Branch 64 dated
SO ORDERED.
DANTE
O. TINGA
Associate Justice
WE
CONCUR:
LEONARDO A. QUISUMBING
Associate Justice
Chairperson
RUBEN T.
REYES TERESITA LEONARDO-DE CASTRO
Associate
Justice Associate
Justice
ARTURO D. BRION
Associate Justice
A T T E S T A T I O N
I
attest that the conclusions in the above Decision were reached in consultation
before the case was assigned to the writer of the opinion of the Court’s
Division.
LEONARDO A. QUISUMBING
Associate Justice
Chairperson
C E R T I F I C A T I O N
Pursuant
to Section 13, Article VIII of the Constitution, and the Division Chairperson’s
Attestation, it is hereby certified that the conclusions in the above Decision
were reached in consultation before the case was assigned to the writer of the
opinion of the Court’s Division.
REYNATO S. PUNO
Chief Justice
[2]
[15]Sec. 49. Splitting or consolidation of titles.—A registered owner of several distinct parcels of land embraced in and covered by a certificate of title desiring in lieu thereof separate certificates, each containing one or more parcels, may file a written request for that purpose with the Register of Deeds concerned, and the latter, upon the surrender of the owner’s duplicate, shall cancel it together with its original and issue in lieu thereof separate certificates as desired. x x x
[16]Sec. 58. Procedure where conveyance involves portion of land.—If a deed or conveyance is for a part only of the land described in a certificate of title, the Register of Deeds shall not enter any transfer certificate to the grantee until a plan of such land showing all the portions or lots into which it has been subdivided and the corresponding technical descriptions shall have been verified and approved pursuant to Section 50 of this Decree. Meanwhile, such deed may only be annotated by way of memorandum upon the grantor’s certificate of title, original and duplicate, said memorandum to serve as a notice to third persons of the fact that certain unsegregated portion of the land described therein has been conveyed, and every certificate with such memorandum shall be effectual for the purpose of showing the grantee’s title to the portion conveyed to him, pending the actual issuance of the corresponding certificate in his name.
Upon the approval of the plan and technical descriptions, the original of the plan, together with a certified copy of the technical descriptions shall be filed with the Register of Deeds for annotation in the corresponding certificate of title and thereupon said officer shall issue a new certificate of title to the grantee for the portion conveyed, and at the same time cancel the grantor’s certificate partially with respect only to said portion conveyed, or, if the grantor so desires, his certificate may be cancelled totally and a new one issued to him describing therein the remaining portion: Provided, however, That pending approval of said plan, no further registration or annotation of any subsequent deed or other voluntary instrument involving the unsegregated portion conveyed shall be effected by the Register of Deeds, except where such unsegregated portion was purchased from the Government or any of its instrumentalities. If the land has been subdivided into several lots, designated by numbers or letters, the Register of Deeds may, if desired by the grantor, instead of canceling the latter’s certificate and issuing a new one to the same for the remaining unconveyed lots, enter on said certificate and on its owner’s duplicate a memorandum of such deed of conveyance and of the issuance of the transfer certificate to the grantee for the lot or lots thus conveyed, and that the grantor’s certificate is cancelled as to such lot or lots.