This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2009-06-18 |
QUISUMBING, J. |
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| Petitioner contends that the RTC acted without jurisdiction in allowing the registration of the subject land because the land is forest land and thus, inalienable. Verily, jurisprudence is replete with cases which iterate that forest lands or forest reserves are not capable of private appropriation, and possession thereof, however long, cannot convert them into private property.[28] | |||||
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2000-02-28 |
YNARES-SANTIAGO, J. |
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| While we acknowledge the Court of Appeals' finding that private respondents and their predecessors-in-interest have been in possession of the subject land for sixty three (63) years at the time of the application of their petition, our hands are tied by the applicable laws and jurisprudence in giving practical relief to them. The fact remains that from the time the subject land was declared alienable until the time of their application, private respondents' occupation thereof was only twenty six (26) years. We cannot consider their thirty seven (37) years of possession prior to the release of the land as alienable because absent the fact of declassification prior to the possession and cultivation in good faith by petitioner, the property occupied by him remained classified as forest or timberland, which he could not have acquired by prescription. Further, jurisprudence is replete with cases which reiterate that forest lands or forest reserves are not capable of private appropriation and possession thereof, however long, cannot convert them into private property. Possession of the land by private respondents, whether spanning decades or centuries, could never ripen into ownership. This Court is constrained to abide by the latin maxim "(d)ura lex, sed lex".[12] | |||||