HEIRS OF SPOUSES CRISPULO FERRER AND ENGRACIA PUHAWAN, REPRESENTED BY ROMEO F. GAZA AS ATTORNEY-IN-FACT, VS. THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS, NATIONAL POWER CORPORATION, GUIDO ALFREDO DELGADO, FERNANDO ROXAS, ALBERTO PANGCOG, SAMUEL PIEDAD, GREGORIO ALVAREZ, RAFAEL LAGOS, AUGUSTO GO, NAPOLEON EUFEMIO

Ruling

accordingly affirmed it through its decision of May 12, 2009. [19] The CA likewise found unmeritorious the petitioners' motion for reconsideration and denied it through its resolution of October 23, 2009 , [20] a copy of which was received by petitioners on November 3, 2009. Thirty-eight days later, on December 11, 2009, the petitioners filed with the Court a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court. Rejecting the petitioners' arguments, we denied the petition and denied the subsequent motion for reconsideration in our Resolutions of January 18, 2010 and April 21, 2010, respectively. Procedurally, the Court found that the petitioners, by resorting to a certiorari petition, erred in choosing the legal remedy against the CA rulings. We noted that the errors the petitioners raised were errors of law rather than errors of jurisdiction, since "[t]he gist of [the] petitioners' objections to the CA ruling was the appellate court's failure to appreciate their arguments and evidence in support of their claims, but this does not amount to an error of jurisdiction. A certiorari writ will not be issued to cure errors by the lower court in its appreciation of the evidence, its conclusions anchored on the said findings, and its conclusions of law. As long as the court acts within its jurisdiction, any alleged errors committed in the exercise of its discretion will amount to nothing more than mere errors of judgment, correctible by an appeal x x x [by] certiorari filed under Rule 45 [of the Rules of Court]." [21] We considered the resort to a certiorari petition under Rule 65 as a disingenuous move to circumvent the rule on the period for filing an appeal by certiorari under Rule 45 which allows only 15 days from notice of the judgment appealed from to file an appeal. As the petition was filed 38 days after receipt of the assailed CA resolution denying the motion for reconsideration, the petitioners used the certiorari petition as a substitute for the lost appeal, a move the Court has consistently reproved . Despite these procedural lapses, the Court nevertheless reviewed the merits of the petitioners' case, but as the RTC and the CA did, found nothing to support the petitioners' claims. In seeking to enjoin Napocor from selling Lot 1873 and to claim damages for the use and occupation thereof, the petitioners relied on their claim of ownership which they contended was sufficiently proved by (1) the certification from the Bureau of Lands showing that their predecessor, Crispulo Ferrer, was a survey claimant, and (2) the OCTs covering the lot in the name of co-petitioner Emiliano Ferrer. We rejected these claims by ruling that: The Bureau of Lands Certification] did not adequately establish their right to Lot 1873. All that the Certification proved was that Crispulo Ferrer was a survey claimant. The purpose of a survey plan is simply to identify and delineate the extent of the land. A survey plan, even if approved by the Bureau of Lands, is not