by Engr. Josefino Cacatian and was approved on 19 September 1986; Subsequent thereto, a public land subdivision survey, Csd 11-010895-D covering Lot 10038, Cad. 102, a portion of Lot 953 and Lot 968, Csd. 102 was also made by the Geodetic Engineer, Engr. Josefino V. Cacatian in the name of Lualhati

Ruling

WHEREFORE, the order appealed from is hereby AFFIRMED. [18] Undaunted, petitioners filed this petition. Petitioners contend that the two courts below erred in dismissing the civil case for cancellation of respondents titles with damages since they (petitioners) were the real parties in interest. Their position is that the suit they initially filed in the RTC of Davao City was not an action for reversion (wherein the real party in interest would have indeed been the Republic of the Philippines) but rather an action for cancellation of titles with damages , since the problem was double titling. Petitioners thus pray for the cancellation of titles and free patents fraudulently secured by respondents over the same parcels of land which were already registered to them through OCTs which were still intact and in their names at the time of the issuance of respondents allegedly void titles. Petitioners insist that since the land in question was already private land at the time it was issued a free patent by the Bureau of Lands, the inclusion of the Republic of the Philippines as the real party in interest was unnecessary. All told, the crux of the controversy before us is: what is the nature of the present case and who is the real party in interest? The resolution of this issue in turn hinges on the determination of the nature of the land in dispute, that is, whether it was already private land or still public land at the time the free patents (and the second set of OCTs) were issued by the Bureau of Lands. We grant the petition. This legal dispute does not involve an action for the reversion of land to the public domain but one for the cancellation of null and void free patents over private land. We have already distinguished these two causes of action in Heirs of Ambrocio Kionisala vs. Heirs of Honorio Dacut: [19] An ordinary civil action for declaration of nullity of free patents and certificates of title is not the same as an action for reversion ( Heirs of Marciano Nagano v. Court of Appeals , G.R. No. 123231, 17 November 1997, 282 SCRA 43, 49-51). The difference between them lies in the allegations as to the character of ownership of the realty whose title is sought to be nullified. In an action for reversion, the pertinent allegations in the complaint would admit State ownership of the disputed land. Hence in Gabila v. Barriga (No. L-28917, 30 September 1971, 41 SCRA 131, 135) where the plaintiff in his complaint admits that he has no right to demand the cancellation or amendment of the defendants title because even if the title were canceled or amended the ownership of the land embraced therein or of the portion affected by the amendment would revert to the public domain, we ruled that the action was for reversion and that the only person or entity entitled to relief would be the Director of Lands. On the other hand, a cause of action for declaration of nullity of free patent and certificate of title would require allegations of the plaintif