BUREAU OF FORESTRY vs.
COURT OF APPEALS and HELD:
FILOMENO GALLO
G.R. No. L-37995 No. Admittedly, the controversial area is within
August 31, 1987 a timberland block classified and certified as such by the
Director of Forestry in 1956. The lands are needed for
forest purposes and hence they are portions of the
FACTS: public domain which cannot be the subject of
registration proceedings.
In 1961, Mercedes Diago applied for the
registration of 4 parcels of land situated in Buenavista, Clearly, the the land is public land and there is
Iloilo containing an approximate area of 30.5 hectares. no need for the Director of Forestry to submit
She alleged she occupied said parcels of land having convincing proofs that the land is more valuable for
bought them from the estate of the late Jose Ma. Nava forest purposes than for agriculture.
who, in his lifetime, had bought the lands in turn from
Canuto Gustilo in 1934. As provided for under Sec. 6 of Commonwealth
Act No. 141, the classification or reclassification of
The Director of Lands opposed the application public lands into alienable or disposable, mineral or
on the ground that neither the applicant nor her forest lands is now a prerogative of the Executive
predecessors-in-interest have sufficient title over the Department and not of the courts. With these rules,
lands applied for, which could be registered under the there should be no more room for doubt that it is not
Torrens systems, and that they have never been in the court which determines the classification of lands of
open, continuous and exclusive possession of the said the public domain but the Executive Branch, through
lands for at least 30 years. The Director of Forestry also the Office of the President. Furthermore, respondents
opposed on the ground that certain portions of the cannot claim to have obtained their title by prescription
lands, with an area of approximately 19.4 hectares are since the application filed by them necessarily implied
mangrove swamps and are within a Timberland Block. an admission that the portions applied for are part of
the public domain and cannot be acquired by
In 1965, Filomeno Gallo purchased the subject prescription, unless the law expressly permits it. It is a
parcels of land from Mercedes Diago, and moved to be rule of law that possession of forest lands, however
substituted in place of the latter, attaching to his motion long, cannot ripen into private ownership.
an Amended Application for Registration of Title.
Philippine Fisheries Commission also moved to
substitute petitioner Bureau of Forestry as oppositor,
since supervision and control of said portion have been
transferred from the Bureau of Forestry to the PFC.
In April 1966, the trial court rendered its
decision ordering the registration of the 4 parcels of
land in the name of Filomeno Gallo. It ruled that
although the controverted portion of 19.4 hectares are
mangrove and nipa swamps within a Timberland Block,
petitioners failed to submit convincing proof that these
lands are more valuable for forestry than for
agricultural purposes, and the presumption is that these
are agricultural lands.
ISSUE:
Whether or not the classification of lands of
public domain by the Executive Branch of the
Government into agricultural, forest or mineral can be
changed or varied by the court.
Held:
Sta. Rosa Realty Development Corporation vs Court of
Appeals
[G.R. No. 112526; October 12, 2001; 367 SCRA 175] In Natalia Realty, Inc. vs (DAR) Department of
Agrarian Reform, the Court held that lands classified as
non-agricultural prior to the effectivity of the CARL may
Facts: not be compulsorily acquired for distribution to farmer
beneficiaries. However, more than the classification of
Petitioner, Sta. Rosa Realty Development the subject land as PARK is the fact that subsequent
Corporation (SRRDC) was the registered owner of two studies and survey showed that the parcels of land in
parcels of land, situated at Barangay Casile, Cabuyao, question form a vital part of a watershed area.
Laguna covered by TCT Nos. 81949 and 84891, with a
total area of 254.6 hectares. The parcels of land in
Barangay Casile were declared as "PARK" by a Zoning
Ordinance adopted by the municipality of Cabuyao in Another factor that needs to be mentioned is
1979, as certified by the Housing and Land Use the fact that during the DARAB hearing, petitioner
Regulatory Board. presented proof that the Casile property has slopes of
18% and over, which exempted the land from the
coverage of CARL.
On December 12, 1989, Secretary of Agrarian Hence, the Court remanded the case to the
Reform Miriam Defensor Santiago sent two (2) notices DARAB for re-evaluation and determination of the
of acquisition to petitioner, stating that petitioner's nature of the parcels of land involved to resolve the
landholdings had been placed under the issue of its coverage by the Comprehensive Land
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Then On Reform Program.In the meantime, the effects of the
April 6, 1990, petitioner sent a letter to the Land Bank of CLOAs issued by the DAR to supposed farmer
the Philippines stating that its property under the beneficiaries shall continue to be stayed by the
aforesaid land titleswere exempt from CARP coverage temporary restraining order issued on December 15,
because they had been classified as watershed area and 1993, which shall remain in effect until final decision on
were the subject of a pending petition for land the case.
conversion.
On January 5, 1994, the Sangguniang Bayan of
Cabuyao, Laguna issued a Resolution voiding the zoning
classification of the land at Barangay Casile as Park and
declaring that the land is now classified as agricultural
land.
Issue:
Whether or not the property in question is
covered by CARP despite the fact that the entire
property formed part of a watershed area prior to the
enactment of R. A. No. 6657
