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Question 2

The Land Registration Authority
a. Functions of the Authority

Answer 2

The Land Registration Commission shall have the following functions:

(a) Extend speedy and effective assistance to the Department of Agrarian Reform, the Land Bank, and other agencies in the implementation of the land reform program of the government;

(b) Extend assistance to courts in ordinary and cadastral land registration proceedings;

(c) Be the central repository of records relative to original registration of lands titled under the Torrens system, including subdivision and consolidation plans of titled lands.

Question 3

The Land Registration Authority
b. Functions of the Administrator

Answer 3

(1) The Commissioner of Land Registration shall have the following functions:

(a) Issue decrees of registration pursuant to final judgments of the courts in land registration proceedings and cause the issuance by the Registers of Deeds of the corresponding certificates of title;

(b) Exercise supervision and control over all Registers of Deeds and other personnel of the Commission;

(c) Resolve cases elevated en consulta by, or on appeal from decision of, Registers of Deeds;

(d) Exercise executive supervision over all clerks of court and personnel of the Courts of First Instance throughout the Philippines with respect to the discharge of their duties and functions in relation to the registration of lands;

(e) Implement all orders, decisions, and decrees promulgated relative to the registration of lands and issue, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Justice, all needful rules and regulations therefor;

(f) Verify and approve subdivision, consolidation, and consolidation-subdivision survey plans of properties titled under Act No. 496 except those covered by P.D. No. 957.

Question 4

Office of the Register of Deeds
a. The Registry of Property

Answer 4

General functions of Registers of Deeds. The office of the Register of Deeds constitutes a public repository of records of instruments affecting registered or unregistered lands and chattel mortgages in the province or city wherein such office is situated.

FUNCTIONS OF THE ROD: IPDI

1. Immediately register an instrument
   presented for registration dealing with real
   or personal property which complies with
   the requisites for registration
2. Shall see to it that said instrument bears
   the proper documentary and science
   stamps and that the same are properly
   cancelled
3. If the instrument is not registerable, he
   shall deny the registration thereof and
   inform the presentor of such denial in
   writing, stating the ground or reason
   therefore, and advising him of his right to
   appeal by consulta in accordance with Sec.
   117 of PD 1529
4. Prepare and keep an index system which
   contains the names of all registered

It shall be the duty of the Register of Deeds to immediately register an instrument presented for registration dealing with real or personal property which complies with all the requisites for registration. He shall see to it that said instrument bears the proper documentary and science stamps and that the same are properly canceled. If the instrument is not registerable, he shall forthwith deny registration thereof and inform the presentor of such denial in writing, stating the ground or reason therefor, and advising him of his right to appeal by consulta in accordance with Section 117 of this Decree.

Question 5

Thus, between two buyers of the same land, priority is given to:

Answer 5

1. The first registrant in good faith;
2. Then, the first possessor in good faith; and
3. Finally, the buyer who in good faith presents the oldest title. (Art. 1544, CC)

Question 6

Effect of registration

Answer 6

Registration in the public registry is notice to the whole world. (Guaranteed Homes v. Valdez (577 SCRA 441)

Question 7

Instances when Register of Deeds may deny registration

Answer 7

1. Where there are several copies of the title (as in co-ownership) but only one is presented.
Every copy of the duplicate original must contain identical entries of the transactions, particularly voluntary ones, otherwise the whole Torrens system would cease to be reliable.
The integrity of the Torrens system may be adversely affected if an encumbrance, or outright conveyance, is annotated on only one copy and not on the others.
2. Where the property is presumed conjugal but the document bears the signature of only one spouse.
Under Article 166 of the CC, the alienation of conjugal property by the husband without the wife‘s consent is voidable. The wife may ask for annulment of the contract within 10 years.
But where the title is solely in the name of the husband, and there is no showing that the land was acquired during the marriage, the presumption of conjugality does not obtain. (Assoc.

Question 8

Article 420.
Article 421.

“Property, according to the Civil Code, is either of public dominion or of private ownership .” Property is of public dominion if it is:

Answer 8

(420) … intended for public use, such as roads, canals, rivers, torrents, ports and bridges constructed by the State, banks, shores, roadsteads and others of similar character; or if it:

(421) . . . belong[s] to the State, without being for public use, and are intended for some public service or for the development of the national wealth.

All other property of the State, it is provided further, which is not of the character mentioned in … article 4201, is patrimonial property,16 meaning to say, property ‘open to disposition17 by the Government, or otherwise, property pertaining to the national domain, or public lands.18 Property of the public dominion, on the other hand, refers to things held by the State by regalian right. They are things res publicae in nature and hence, incapable of private appropriation. Thus, under the present Constitution, [w]ith the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated.’19