04/02/2020
E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly
claim of acquisition or ownership, for at least thirty years immediately
preceding the filing of the application for confirmation of title except when
prevented by war or force majeure.
These shall be conclusively
presumed to have performed all the conditions essential to a Government
grant and shall be entitled to a certificate of title under the provisions of
this Chapter.
(c) Members of the national cultural minorities who by
themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest have been in
open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and
occupation of lands of the public domain suitable to agriculture,
whether disposable or not, under a bona fide claim of ownership
for at least 30 years shall be entitled to the rights granted in subsection (b) hereof."[204]
Registration under the foregoing provisions presumes that the land was originally
public agricultural land but because of adverse possession since July 4, 1955 (free
patent) or at least thirty years (judicial confirmation), the land has become private.
Open, adverse, public and continuous possession is sufficient, provided, the
possessor makes proper application therefor. The possession has to be confirmed
judicially or administratively after which a torrens title is issued.
A torrens title recognizes the owner whose name appears in the certificate as
entitled to all the rights of ownership under the civil law. The Civil Code of the
Philippines defines ownership in Articles 427, 428 and 429. This concept is based on
Roman Law which the Spaniards introduced to the Philippines through the Civil Code
of 1889. Ownership, under Roman Law, may be exercised over things or rights. It
primarily includes the right of the owner to enjoy and dispose of the thing owned.
And the right to enjoy and dispose of the thing includes the right to receive from the
thing what it produces,[205] the right to consume the thing by its use,[206] the right
to alienate, encumber, transform or even destroy the thing owned,[207] and the right
to exclude from the possession of the thing owned by any other person to whom the
owner has not transmitted such thing.[208]
1. The Indigenous Concept of Ownership and Customary Law.
Ownership of ancestral domains by native title does not entitle the ICC/IP to a
torrens title but to a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). The CADT formally
recognizes the indigenous concept of ownership of the ICCs/IPs over their ancestral
domain. Thus:
"Sec. 5. Indigenous concept of ownership.- Indigenous concept of
ownership sustains the view that ancestral domains and all resources
found therein shall serve as the material bases of their cultural integrity.
The indigenous concept of ownership generally holds that ancestral
domains are the ICCs/IPs private but community property which belongs
to all generations and therefore cannot be sold, disposed or destroyed. It
likewise covers sustainable traditional resource rights."
elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/36882
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