G.R. No. 182735 - SPS. ROGELIO MARCELO & MILAGROS MARCELO, VS. PHILIPPINE COMMERCIAL INTERNATIONAL BANK (PCIB).D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered DISMISSING the above-entitled complaint for insufficiency of evidence to warrant the reliefs prayed for therein as well as the pecuniary counterclaim of defendant Philippine Commercial International Bank. [46] Acting on the spouses Marcelo's Motion for Reconsideration, [47] the trial court issued an Order [48] dated 10 March 2004 reversing itself and rendering the extra-judicial foreclosure proceedings null and void for being violative of Act No. 3135. The trial court, in granting the Motion, submissively agreed with the spouses Marcelo's suppositions, thus: All told, the Court agrees with the argument of [Sps. Marcelo] that the provision of law requiring the posting of the notices of sale of a property subject of extra-judicial foreclosure have not been faithfully complied with in the proceedings complained of in the case at bar. By such token, the aforestated extra-judicial foreclosure proceedings must be nullified for having been violative of the law on the matter. If for that reason alone, the Court withdraws its application in the assailed decision of "the legal presumption that the public functionaries involved in the foreclosure proceedings, particularly the sheriff concerned, `regularly performed' their official duties in that specific respect. [par. (m), Sec. 3, Rule 131 of the Revised Rules of Court]. [49] In pronouncing non-compliance with the publication requirement as necessitated by Act No. 3135, the trial court decreed that the publication of the Notice of Sheriff's Sale in The Times Newsweekly , being a tabloid with few stale news items, was insufficient to meet the publication requirement of the law, the same having commanded very minimal readership. Hence: WHEREFORE, premises considered, the aforementioned Motion for Reconsideration submitted by [the spouses Marcelo] vis-à-vis the decision dated 12 December 2003 is hereby GRANTED. Accordingly, the aforesaid decision, particularly its dispositive portion, is hereby set aside and, in lieu thereof, another judgment is hereby rendered declaring null and void the extra-judicial foreclosure proceedings initiated by [respondent] Philippine Commercial International Bank against the properties mortgaged in its favor by spouses Rogelio Marcelo and Milagros Marcelo and all the incidents appurtenant thereto, including the public auction sale conducted, the certificate of sale issued pursuant thereto and the annotation thereof in [the spouses Marcelo] transfer certificates of title. [50] Aggrieved, PCIB appealed the above Order to the Court of Appeals on 31 March 2004. [51] The Court of Appeals, in its Decision [52] dated 31 January 2007, overturned the appealed Order. The appellate court held that the publication of the Notice of Sheriff's Sale at The Times Newsweekly , as recognized by the Executive Judge of the trial court, was in compliance with the publication requirement for the foreclosure sale. The appellate court, defining