"Mariano Lopez de Leon v. Municipality of

Ruling

accordingly rendered a decision approving the report of the clerk of court and ordering that once the decision becomes final, the corresponding decree of registration of title be issued in favor of the applicants. [6] The oppositor Municipality of Silang interposed an appeal from the said decision of the land registration court to the Court of Appeals. On May 2, 1979, the Court of Appeals rendered a Decision [7] dismissing the appeal "for lack of personality of the oppositor-appellant Municipality of Silang to interfere in the registration proceedings below." [8] Undaunted, the oppositor municipality filed with this Court a petition for review on certiorari docketed as G.R. No. 51054 ( Municipality of Silang v. Court of Appeals ) which was denied on September 19, 1979. The municipalitys motion for reconsideration was likewise denied with finality for lack of merit on October 24, 1979. [9] On November 9, 1979, judgment was entered in the said case. [10] Meanwhile, in the course of examining the records for the purpose of issuing the decree of registration in favor of Pedro Lopez, et al., the Land Registration Commission discovered that Lot No. 1, plan Psu-51901 had been decreed in favor of private respondents Honesto de Castro, et al. [11] Further investigation revealed that sometime in 1967, [12] Honesto de Castro, et al. filed before the Court of First Instance of Cavite, Branch IV in Tagaytay City, an application for the registration of the same parcel of land under Land Registration Case No. TG95 and LRC Rec. No. N-33292. The case was called for hearing on March 18, 1968. Eight (8) days later or on March 26, 1968, the court [13] promulgated a decision adjudicating the land located at Barrio Iruhin, Tagaytay City, more particularly described as Plan Psu-51901-Amd., in favor of said applicants and directing that upon the finality of the decision, the corresponding decree of registration be issued. [14] The ruling of the court was based on its finding that one Hermogenes Orte, who originally owned the land sought to be registered, sold it in 1932 to Marciano de Castro. The deed evidencing said sale was destroyed during the Japanese occupation. De Castro continued possession of the land until his death on April 26, 1940. His wife Epifania and their children named Maria Socorro, Francisco, Honesto, Romualdo, Felicitacion, Faustino and Felixberto continued possession of the property who declared the land for assessment and taxation purposes in Cabuyao, Laguna. However, upon learning that the property lies in Tagaytay City, the applicants declared it in their names in said city. The cause of the conflicting claims over the same land was never explained because the head of the geodetic engineers of the Land Registration Commission did not appear in court in Land Registration Case No. 299. Hence, on August 19, 1981, the CFI of Cavite, Branch III [15] issued an order declaring that the court had lost jurisdiction to hear the case, without, however, di