ISABELA COLLEGES, INC., VS. THE HEIRS OF NIEVES TOLENTINO-RIVERA, NAMELY: PABLO T. RIVERA, FELICULA R. PEREZ, DOLORES R. QUERIDO, OLGA BUNAG, LOLITA RIVERA, LUCIA FLORES, MANUEL RIVERA, ANDRES RIVERA, CAMILO RIVERA, EMMA ALFONSO, ANTONIA PEREZ; AND PROCESO CORTEZ, DANILO DE LA CRUZ, ALEXANDER CORTEZ

Ruling

accordingly amended. In December 1976, the Office of the Register of Deeds of Isabela was burned. Among the titles destroyed was TCT No. 45890 in the name of the Isabela Colleges. The title was administratively reconstituted in 1978. In 1980, Nieves went to the United States. Upon her return to the Philippines in 1988, she filed a petition for the reconstitution of OCT No. P-216 and the annulment of an illegally reconstituted original of OCT No. P-216 obtained by a certain Paulino while Nieves was abroad. Both petitions were granted by the trial court. The Register of Deeds of Isabela was ordered to reconstitute the original OCT No. P-216 in the name of Nieves. The decision of trial court was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in 1993. In January 1988, Pablo Rivera Jr., George Lucero, Danilo de la Cruz, Alex Cortez, Proceso Cortez, Olga R. Bunag, Corazon Menor, and Carlos Calderon, some of whom are the respondents in this case, entered the property bought by Isabela Colleges, prompting the latter to bring an action for forcible entry against them. In February 1991, the Municipal Trial Court of Cauayan, Isabela rendered a decision ordering the intruders to vacate the land in question. This decision became final and executory. In 1991, Nieves brought the present suit against the Isabela Colleges for "Nullity of Titles, Deeds of Sale, Recovery of Ownership and Possession, Cancellation of Titles, Damages with Preliminary Injunction." Nieves alleged: (1) that she was the exclusive owner of a parcel of land which had an area of 13.5267 hectares and was covered by OCT No. P-216 issued in her name by the Register of Deeds of Isabela; (2) that sometime in 1950, petitioner Isabela Colleges occupied four hectares of her land, allegedly by virtue of a sale between petitioner and her husband Pablo Rivera; (3) that the deed of sale between the Isabela Colleges and Pablo Rivera was void because the land sold was her paraphernal property and the sale was made without her knowledge and consent; and (4) that TCT No. T-45890, which was issued on August 29, 1978 in the name of the Isabela Colleges, was fake and spurious. Nieves prayed that the sale be declared void, that the title of the Isabela Colleges be cancelled, and that she be placed in possession of the subject property. In its Answer, [3] the Isabela Colleges asserted that the property in question had been sold to it with the knowledge and consent of Nieves Tolentino who in fact signed the deed of sale. The issuance of TCT No. T-45890 in its name enjoys the presumption of regularity. Noting that Nieves' complaint in 1991 was filed 42 years after the questioned sale took place in 1949, the Isabela Colleges contended that the complaint was barred by prescription and/or laches. At the pre-trial conference, the parties agreed to limit the issues to the following: Is the land in question consisting of four hectares paraphernal or not? Is the signature of Nieves Tolentino in the Deed of Sale dated August 15, 1949 f