(4.6-hectare property in San Miguel, Apas:) SC rules: State owns Lot 937

CEBU, Philippines — The Supreme Court, in a 66-page decision, has ruled that, indeed, it is the State that owns the disputed 4.6-hectare lot in Sitio San Miguel, Barangay Apas, Cebu City and not private claimant Mariano Godinez and later Mazy’s Capital Inc.

This, after the High Court in an August 5, 2024 decision, declared null and void the March 1, 1956 order issued by the Court of First Instance (CFI) of Cebu in G.L.R.O. Record No 5988 that granted Mariano the reconstituted title for the lot; the reconstituted Transfer Certificate of Title No. RT-6757 in the name of Mariano; and the April 18, 2002 decision of Branch 9 of the Regional Trial Court of Cebu City, in Civil Case No. CEB-19845 that declared Mariano as the absolute owner of the lot and not the State.

The March 1, 1956 order stated that CFI granted the petition after finding that: (1) Mariano was the registered owner of the lot, and that (2) both the owner's duplicate and the original copy of a certificate of title covering Lot 937 kept in the office of the Register of Deeds of Cebu had been lost or destroyed during the war.

With this, CFI ordered the Registry of Deeds of Cebu to issue a reconstituted title to Godinez, who was issued TCT No. RT-6757.

The April 18, 2002 RTC Branch 9 decision, on the other hand, ruled that Mariano was the absolute and exclusive owner of Lot 937, as evidenced by TCT No. RT-6757 and that he remained as such since the expropriation case was allegedly never consummated because the Republic failed to prove the payment of just compensation.

The August 5, 2024 SC decision stemmed from the “Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court” Mazy's Capital, Inc (Mazy's) filed against the Republic of the Philippines (Republic), as represented by the Department of National Defense (DND), questioning the March 20, 2020 decision and September 30, 2021 resolution issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) in Cebu City on the ownership of Lot 937.

The SC, however, ruled otherwise, nullifying and voiding Mariano’s reconstituted title and the decision naming him as the absolute owner of Lot 937 in this decision.

The Lot 937 saga could be traced to April 18, 2002 RTC Branch 9 decision, when the court ruled that the expropriation case in 1938 was never consummated because the Republic failed to prove the payment of just compensation.

This was affirmed by the CA and writs of execution and demolition were issued in 2010.

In the meantime, the over 200 residents, under the group Archangels Residents Mergence Inc. (ARMI), filed a motion to quash the writs before the RTC-Branch 9 but were denied.

“Despite the numerous cases filed seeking to forestall the implementation of the writs, the demolition of the houses standing on Lot 937 pushed through in September 2022 and was fully implemented by December 14, 2022,” the SC said.

“Thus, the houses and structures purportedly owned by the AFP members and their families were demolished, leaving thereon only a building owned by the AFP Visayas Command,” it further said.

Supported by evidence uncovered by the residents, including a May 25, 1939 Provincial Voucher of the payment for Lot 937, the Republic, through the DND, asserted ownership by pursuing the case with the CA.

“It was when the Republic’s appeal was pending with the CA that the sale of Lot 937 between Mariano and Mazy’s transpired. By virtue thereof, Mazy’s was joined in the appeal as a co-defendant-apellee,” the SC said.

On March 2020, the CA ruled against Mazy’s, which raised the matter before the SC, which ruled that records of the 1938 expropriation proceedings “indubitably show that the Republic had indeed paid to Eutiquio's estate the amount of just compensation determined by the CFI in the Expropriation Case.”

“Consequently, ownership over Lot 937 had passed from Eutiquio's (Godinez) estate to the Republic as far back as in 1938,” the SC said in this decision.

The SC also ruled that the case is remanded to the CA “for further proceedings to hear and resolve with reasonable dispatch the issue of whether or not Mazy's Capital, Inc. is an innocent purchaser for value, whether the Republic is guilty of estoppel, and any other defense or claim that the parties may raise which has not yet been disposed of in this Decision.”

The CA was also directed to cause to raffle the case and submit is resolution in a sealed report.

“The Court of Appeals is tasked to hear and receive evidence, conclude the proceedings, and submit to this Court a report on its findings and recommended conclusions within three months from finality of this Decision,” said the SC.

ARMI vice president Ann Martel, in an interview with The Freeman, said that the SC decision is a vindication of what they are fighting for—that Lot 937 is owned by the government and not by anyone else.

“We are very happy of the Supreme Court decision that the Republic is proclaimed and acknowledged as the owner of Lot 937. The SC decision supported our claim nga ang among kusog nga tingog against Mariano Godinez and Mazy’s is not a ‘Kwentong kutsero’,” Martel said.

She was referencing a comment attributed to former Caloocan congressman Edgar Erice, who had acted as Mazy’s representative, who said at the height of the San Miguel, Apas demolition in November 2022 that the residents’ assertion that the State owns Lot 937 was “kwentong kutsero.”

Martel said her family was living within Lot 937 since 1965, as his father is an Armed Forces of the Philippines soldier. She said that despite of the demolition of all their houses, a few, especially the senior citizens, are hoping to return to Lot 937.

“Naay uban, labi na gyud mga senior citizens nga tua na sa bukid namuyo, are hoping nga makabalik sa Lot 937 kay mas duol siya sa siyudad, labi na gyud sa mga hospitals,” she said.

“We consider it (SC) a victory of the residents as well, kay na-validate ang among gi-fight—gibugalbugalan mi sa una kay mga gahi kuno og ulo, mopuyo lang gihapon bisan gipapahawa na sa tag-iya—nga ang gobiyerno ang tag-iya sa yuta ug builders in good faith me, dili mi squatters,” said another resident, who opted not to be named. — (FREEMAN)