G.R. No. 217210 - REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, V. CAPITAL RESOURCES CORPORATION, ROMEO ROXAS, AND THE REGISTER OF DEEDS OF THE PROVINCE OF LA UNION.

Ruling

Accordingly, on July 27, 2007, DENR-Regional Executive Director Victor Ancheta rendered a Decision recommending that an action be instituted for the cancellation of TCT No. T-23343 and for the reversion of Blocks 35 and 36 to the State. Later on, a Joint Resolution was issued by DENR-Regional Executive Director Ancheta denying Hidalgo's foreshore lease application. Consequently, the Republic of the Philippines, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), filed a Complaint for Cancellation of Title and Reversion against defendants-appellants and the Register of Deeds of La Union before the Regional Trial Court [Bauang, La Union; Branch 33], docketed as Civil Case No. 1844-BG. The Republic alleged that from the time that Homestead Survey Plan H-6811 was approved in 1924 until the cadastral survey in 1987, the northwestern portion of the subject property had been washed out and eaten up by the sea waters. Per the ocular inspection, Blocks 35 to 36 formed part of the public domain. This fact is clearly supported by subdivision plan Psd-1-009891 submitted by defendants-appellants wherein the area already consumed by the sea has already been demarcated or isolated. Thus, the Republic prayed for judgment: (a) declaring TCT No. T-23343 and its derivative titles as null and void; (b) ordering defendants-appellants to surrender the owner's duplicate of TCT No. T-23343 for cancellation; (c) ordering the defendants, their heirs, agents, assigns or anyone acting in their behalf to cease and desist from exercising acts of ownership over the subject property and to vacate the same, if they are in possession thereof; and (d) ordering the reversion of the subject land to the public domain. Defendants-appellants filed their Answer wherein they denied the allegations in the Complaint and averred that they, as well as their predecessors-in-interest, had purchased the subject property for valuable consideration and in good faith. They insisted that the cadastral survey map did not indicate that Blocks 35 and 36 had become foreshore land and formed part of the seabed. They had not been washed out and eaten up by the sea though, for a brief period, they have been inundated because of strong precipitation and typhoons. Contrary to what was projected in the cadastral survey map, Blocks 35 and 36 are suitable for agricultural, residential, industrial and commercial purposes and are not alternatively covered and uncovered by the movement of the tide. Further, defendants­ appellants posited that the action should be dismissed because it was not filed at the behest of the Director of Lands and that there was a violation of the equal protection of laws since there were other areas adjacent to the sea which were not subjected to reversion proceedings. [3] Ruling of the RTC On May 31, 2011, after trial on the merits, the RTC rendered its Decision of even date, ordering the cancellation of TCT No. T-23343 and the reversion of Blocks 35 and 36 to the public domain, as foll