G.R. No. 164693 - JOSEFA S. ABALOS* AND THE DEVELOPMENT BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES, VS. SPS. LOMANTONG DARAPA AND SINAB DIMAKUTA.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, premises all considered Judgment is hereby rendered: Declaring the foreclosure of TCT No. T-1,997 , the Sheriffs Certificate of Sale dated September 20, 1971 as far as TCT No. T-1,997 is concerned and the Affidavit of Consolidation of Ownership dated October 19, 1978, also insofar as it included TCT No. T-1,997 null and void ab initio ; Annulling TCT No. T-7746 in the name of DBP and TCT No. T-16,280 in the name of defendant Josepha S. Abalos ; Declaring plaintiff Sinab Dimakuta the lawful owner of the land covered by TCT No. T-1,997. For this purpose, the Registrar of Deeds of Lanao del Norte is ordered to reinstate TCT No. T-1,997 in the name of Sinab Dimakuta and perforce cancel TCT No. T-16,280 in the name of Josefa Abalos and the latter to surrender possession of the lot covered by TCT No. 1,997 to plaintiff Sinab Di[m]akuta; Ordering DBP to pay plaintiffs P50,000.00 moral damages; P20,000.00 exemplary damages and P20,000.00 attorney's fees; Directing DBP to pay defendant Josefa Abalos the current fair market value of TCT No. T-1,997 plus actual damages of P50,000.00; moral damages of P50,000.00, exemplary damages of P20,000.00 and attorney's fees of P20,000.00. [10] The DBP and Abalos assailed the RXC decision before the Court of Appeals; Abalos, however, later abandoned her appeal. The Court of Appeals denied the petition in a Decision dated 26 September 2003. It ratiocinated that DBP had no right to foreclose the land under TCT No. T-1,997, it not having been mortgaged: [11] WHEREFORE, premises considered, the instant appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of merit. The assailed 29 November 2000 Decision of the court is hereby AFFIRMED. [12] Hence, this petition for review on certiorari . In the main, DBP wants to convince this Court that the land covered by Tax Declaration No. A-148 mortgaged in 1962, then untitled, is the same land now covered by TCT No. T-1,997 [13] and that DBP came to its possession when the spouses voluntarily delivered the title in 1970 to the bank's manager, Tauti R. Derico, who executed an affidavit which stated that: x x x the land covered by Tax Declaration No. A-148 and TCT No. T-1,997 are one and the same parcel of land which was mortgaged to the Development Bank of the Philippines. [14] OUR RULING We find the petition unmeritorious, and thus, affirm the Court of Appeals. It is fundamental procedural law that a petition for review on certiorari filed with this Court under Rule 45 of the Rules of Civil Procedure shall, as a general rule, raise only questions of law. [15] A question of law arises when there is doubt as to what the law is on a certain state of facts [16] - this is in contradistinction from a question of fact which arises from doubt as to the truth or falsity of the alleged facts. [17] A question of law does not involve an examination of the probative value of the evidence presented by the litigants or any of them and the resolution of the issue must rest solely on what the law provides o