ALBERTO G. PINLAC, ATTY. ERIBERTO H. DECENA, RODOLFO F. REYES, FELIPE BRIONES, JUANITO METILLA, JR., FELIPE A. FLORES, HERMINIO ELEVADO, NARCISO S. SIMEROS, VS. COURT OF APPEALS, ATTY. CORAZON A. MERRERA, ATTY. JEAN MAKASIAR-PUNO, SERGIO ACABAN, REPRESENTED BY ATTY. RAMON GERONA, ATTY. ROGELIO VELAS

Ruling

accordingly filed applications for land titling in their respective names with the appropriate government agency. While petitioners claim that the land in dispute was part of the public domain, they named as respondents several persons and corporations who are titled owners of subdivided parcels of land within the subject property. One of those so impleaded as a party-respondent was the Vil-Ma Maloles Subdivision (hereinafter, Vil-Ma). The individual lot owners of the said subdivision, however, were not specifically named. Since personal service of summons could not be effected on Vil-Ma and some of the other named respondents, petitioners moved for leave of court to serve summons by publication which was granted. Accordingly, the summons was published in the Metropolitan Newsweek, a periodical edited and published in the City of Caloocan and Malolos, Bulacan. [1] Some of the named respondents filed their respective responsive pleadings, while the others, including Vil-Ma, failed to answer, and were thus declared in default. Consequently, petitioners were allowed to present evidence ex parte against the defaulted respondents. The court a quo found the following facts to be conclusive: (T)hat the case involves three parcel of lands, to wit: Lot 1 & 2 situated at the Old Balara, Diliman, Quezon City and Lot 3 situated at Sitio Veterans, Barrio Payatas and Silangan, Quezon City containing an aggregate area of 502 hectares more or less; that Lot 1 is covered by TCT No. 5690 in the name of defaulted respondent Jose V. Bagtas, which title emanated from TCT No. 48546 in the name of Emiliana Vda. De Vera Cruz which contains an actual area of only 294.6 sq. meters, but, when said TCT No. 5690 was issued the same was illegally and fraudulently expanded to cover 23.5767 hectares through fraudulent resurveys without proper judicial proceedings; that on said illegally expanded area of TCT No. 5690 in the name of respondent Jose V. Bagtas, more than 363 transfer certificates of title were subsequently issued including those belonging to some of the defaulted respondents thereof; that TCT No. 5690 contains no technical description on its face; that Lot 2 is covered by TCT No. 3548 in the name of Eustacio Maloles married to Soledad Villegas and Vicente B. Vilar doing business under the name and style of defaulted respondent Vilma Maloles Subdivision Inc., which title was derived from TCT No. 33531 in the name of Oscar L. Uy which in turn came from TCT No. 26285 in the name of Maria Lim which was immediately derived from OCT No. 614 which contains no technical description on its face, that TCT No. 3548 likewise contains no technical description on its face; that however, on the face of TCT No. 33531 of Oscar L. Uy from which TCT No. 3548 of defaulted respondent Vilma Maloles Subdivision Inc., was derived, it appears that said TCT No. 33531 was cancelled by another title, TCT No. 1713 and not by TCT No. 3548, the supposed derivative thereof, which title, from th