G.R. NO. 163751 - ANECITO CALIMPONG AND WIFE [NARCISA YGUAS],*, VS. HEIRS OF FILOMENA GUMELA REPRESENTED BY FLAVIA MOLINA.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, the Order disposed as follows: WHEREFORE, the occupation and cultivation of the land applied for as described in the caption hereof is hereby confirmed and this application is then hereby entered in the records of this office as Free Patent Entry No. 372 . As the applicant has already complied with all the requirements of the law for the issuance of the corresponding patent to the land, it is also hereby ordered that the necessary patent be prepared for the issuance in favor of the Applicant. [4] (Underscoring supplied) On August 17, 1993, Patent No. 09721093961 was issued to Calimpong which was forwarded to the Register of Deeds of Zamboanga del Norte for registration and issuance of the corresponding certificate of title. [5] On August 19, 1993, Original Certificate of Title (OCT) No. P-33780 [6] was issued by and registered in the Register of Deeds for the Province of Zamboanga del Norte in the name of Calimpong. To the complaint of the heirs, the spouses Calimpong alleged in their September 3, 1993 Answer with Counterclaim [7] that, inter alia, assuming that the lot was adjudicated to the Gumelas, "the same ha[d] been considered long abandoned because neither the adjudicatee[s] nor any of the heirs have pursued the titling of the land, cultivation, improvement and possession." In any event, the spouses Calimpong informed that a Free Patent and an OCT over the lot had already been issued in the name of Calimpong by the Register of Deeds of Zamboanga del Norte. The heirs thus filed a Motion to Admit Amended Complaint [8] impleading as additional defendants PENRO and the Register of Deeds of Zamboanga del Norte, seeking as additional reliefs the nullification of OCT No. P-33780 and Free Patent No. 09721093961. The amended complaint [9] was admitted by the Dipolog RTC, by Resolution [10] of February 8, 1994. After trial on the merits, the trial court, by Decision [11] of February 28, 2001, rendered judgment in favor of the heirs. It held that, among other things, the title of the heirs is based on a grant thereof to their predecessors-in-interest by the government in cadastral proceedings and by such grant, the lot ceased to be part of public domain as it had become private property, hence, not subject to free patent application. It thus concluded that the free patent and the title issued to Calimpong were null and void. The decretal portion of the trial court's decision reads: WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Court declares the herein plaintiffs being the hereditary successors of the adjudicatees mentioned in the Decree (Exhibit "L"), are the rightful owners of Lot No. 3013 , Cad. Survey of Dipolog under Cad. Case No. 5, L.R.C. Cad. Record No. 757, situated at Anastacio, Polanco, Zamboanga del Norte and, as prayed for in the complaint, in order to remove clouds cast on it by the claim of the defendants Free Patent No. 09721093961 issued by the PENRO of Zamboanga del Norte, as well as the Original Certificate of Title No. P-33780