LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The Second Division of the Supreme Court (SC) junked the petition for review on certiorari filed by the heirs of Evaristo Tiotioen that sought to reverse an earlier decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) that denied their application for titling of portions of the Puguis communal forest for lack of merit.
In a resolution the High Court ruled that notwithstanding the number of witnesses presented by petitioners, they did not provide any details on how the applicant and his predecessors-in-interest originally came to possess portions of the Puguis communal forest having a total land area of more or less 18 hectares, thus, there is no way for the court to determine definitively that the properties did not become public land at all.
Worst, the possession of the properties by the applicant in 1929 in the concept of an owner is even disputed considering that an agreement on the surface rights executed by Tumpao in 1937 clearly described him as a mere lessee of the properties that had been applied for titling by the heirs of Tiotioen.
The SC pointed out that considering petitioners’ failure to prove that the applied properties are alienable and disposable, it becomes unnecessary for the court to determine whether they have complied with the other requisites for original registration of titles.
“Absence of sufficient evidence as to the alienable and disposable character of the land applied for registration, petitioners’ possession of the same no matter how long cannot ripen into a registrable title,” the SC resolution stated.
On April 30, 2018, the CA reversed the August 30, 2001 decision of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of La Trinidad in Land Registration Case No. 93-LRC-0008 granting the application for registration of land title filed by applicant Evaristo Tiotioen.
On September 6, 1993 Evaristo filed a second application for judicial confirmation and registration over 2 parcels of land, particularly described under plan PSU-230646 as Lot 1, consisting of 123,935 square meters and Lot 2 consisting of 56,553 square meters situated in Pico barangay or within the Puguis communal forest.
The 48-hectare Puguis communal forest is one of the 5 major watersheds in the municipality that provide water supply to the increasing number of the capital town.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda welcomed the decision of the high tribunal, saying that it is now the highest court of the land that decided on the status of the land as belonging to the State and the community and that the municipal government has all the right to ensure that it will be protected from informal settlers who had been time and again attempting to encroach on the watershed.
The municipal government had been consistent in working out the demolition of illegal structures owned by informal settlers erected in strategic portions of the communal forest to prevent the increase in the number of the structures that might eventually compromise the state of the watershed.