G.R. NO. 152570 - SAAD AGRO-INDUSTRIES, INC., VS. REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES. PEDRO URGELLO, INTERVENOR-.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, the Court of Appeals decreed: WHEREFORE, the decision appealed from is hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE and another one issued declaring Free Patent No. 473408 and the corresponding OCT [No.] 0-6667 as NULL and VOID ab initio . SAAD Agro-Industries, Inc. is directed to surrender the owner's duplicate copy of OCT [No.] 0-6667 to the Register of Deeds of Cebu City. The Register of Deeds of Cebu City is hereby ordered to cancel OCT [No.] 0-6667 and all other transfer certificates of title that may have been subsequently issued. Lot No. 1434, CAD 315[-]D located at Barangay Abugon, Sibonga, Cebu, subject matter of this case, is hereby REVERTED as part of [the] public domain and to be classified as timberland. [11] Petitioner's motion for reconsideration, claiming insufficiency of evidence and failure to consider pertinent laws, proved futile as it was dismissed for lack of merit. The Court of Appeals categorically stated that there was a preponderance of evidence showing that the subject lot is within the timberland area. [12] Petitioner now claims that the Court of Appeals erred in relying on the DENR officer's testimony. It claims that the testimony was a mere opinion to the effect that if there was no classification yet of an area, such area should be considered as a public forest. Such opinion was premised on the officer's construction of a provision of Presidential Decree (P.D.) No. 705, otherwise known as the Revised Forestry Code, [13] the pertinent portion of which reads: Those still to be classified under the present system shall continue to remain as part of the public forest. [14] Petitioner points out that P.D. No. 705 took effect on 19 May 1975, or long after the issuance of the free patent and title in question. Thus, the provision stating that all public lands should be considered as "part of the public forests" until a land classification team has declassified them is applicable only after the effectivity of P.D. No. 705 and cannot be made retroactive to cover and prejudice vested rights acquired prior to the effectivity of said law, petitioner concludes. [15] It adds that if the subject lot was encompassed by the term "public forest," the same should have been designated as a "Timberland Block," not as Cadastral Lot No. 1434, CAF-315-D, Sibonga Cadastre which was the designation made by the Republic prior to 1972. [16] Petitioner also questions the Court of Appeals' reliance on the land classification map (L.C. Map) presented by respondent. The trial court had previously declared L.C. Map No. 2961 as inadmissible, finding that "the plaintiff has not duly proved the authenticity and contents." According to petitioner, the L.C. Map presented in court is neither a certified true copy nor one attested to be a true copy by any DENR official having legal custody of the original thereof, and thus should not have been made the basis of the cancellation of the free patent and title. [17] Petitioner further contends that the projecti