Separate Concurring Opinion 14 G.R. No. 224469 the Spanish Crown. 61 Upon their arrival in the Philippines, the Spaniards discovered that Filipinos living in settlements were scattered along water routes and riverbanks. Accordingly, they implemented a process called reduccion, wherein Spanish missionaries were tasked to establish pueblos. Spaniards used the policy of reduccion to introduce and impose the Hispanic culture and civilization upon the Filipinos. 62 The establishment of pueblos meant that the old barangays were divested of their lands. These lands were declared "crown lands or realengas, belonging to the Spanish king." 63 By this reason, "the natives were stripped of their ancestral rights to land." 64 The Spaniards justified their sovereign claims based on discovery65 and through the Law of the Indies, they introduced the concept of the Regalian Doctrine or Jura regalia. 66 It constituted as the Spaniard's elaborated legal framework through which they can administer the Philippines from Madrid, 67 thus: ~ The capacity of the State to own or acquire property is the state's power of dominium. This was the foundation for the early Spanish decrees embracing the feudal theory of Jura regalia. The "Regalian Doctrine" or Jura regalia is a Western legal concept that was first introduced by the Spaniards into the country through the Laws of the Indies and the Royal Cedulas. The Laws of the Indies, i.e., more specifically, Law 14, Title 12, Book 4 of the Novisima Recopilacion de Leyes de las Indias, set the policy of the Spanish Crown with respect to the Philippine Islands in the following manner: "We, having acquired full sovereignty over the Indies, and all lands, territories, and possessions not heretofore ceded away by our royal predecessors, or by us, or in our name, still pertaining to the royal crown and patrimony, it is our will that all lands which are held without proper and true deeds of grant be restored to us as they belong to us, in order that after reserving before all what to us or to our viceroys, audiencias, and governors may seem necessary for public squares, ways, pastures, and commons in those places which are peopled, taking into consideration not only their present condition, but also their 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 J. Puno, Separate Opinion in Cruz v. Secretary of Natural Resources, 400 Phil. 904, 953-954 (2000) [Per Curiam, En Banc]. Id. at 954. Id. Id. Owen James Lynch, Jr., The Legal Bases of Philippine Colonial Sovereignty: An Inquiry, 62 PHIL. L. J. 279,286 (1987). J. Puno, Separate Opinion in Cruz v. Secretary of Natural Resources, 400 Phil. 904, 934 (2000) [Per Curiam, En Banc]. Owen James Lynch, Jr., The Legal Bases of Philippine Colonial Sovereignty: An Inquiry, 62 PHIL. L. J. 279, 286 (1987).