The Supreme Court (SC) has awarded to the national government a 34-hectare parcel of land in what used to be the town of Caloocan, Rizal, known as the Piedad Estate.

Voting 9-4, the High Court ruled that neither the Manotok clan nor the heirs of Homer Barque own Lot 823 of the Piedad Estate, which is situated in Culiat, Capitol Hills, Old Balara, and Ayala Heights that are now part of Quezon City.

It nullified Transfer Certificate Title (TCT) No. RT-22481 (372302) in the name of Severino Manotok IV, TCT No. 210177 in the name of Homer L. Barque, and Deed of Conveyance No. V-200022 issued to a certain Felicitas B. Manahan.

“The Court hereby declares that Lot 823 of the Piedad Estate, Quezon City, legally belongs to the National Government of the Republic of the Philippines, without prejudice to the institution of reversion proceedings by the State through the Office of the Solicitor General,” the SC said in a 97-page decision penned by Associate Justice Martin S. Villarama Jr.

The decision was concurred in by Chief Justice Renato C. Corona and Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Diosdado M. Peralta, Lucas P. Bersamin, Mariano C. del Castillo, Roberto A. Abad, Jose P. Perez and Jose C. Mendoza.

Senior Justice Antonio T. Carpio wrote a dissenting opinion. He was joined by Associate Justices Presbitero J. Velasco Jr. and Arturo D. Biron.

Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes P.A. Sereno also dissented. While Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales wrote a concurring and dissenting opinion and Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura took no part.

Lot 823 is a part of the Piedad Estate, a friar land acquired by the Philippine government from the Philippine Sugar Estates Development Company Ltd., La Sociedad Agricola de Ultramar, the British-Manila Estate Company Ltd., and the Recoleto Order of the Philippine Islands on December 23, 1903.

The Piedad Estate has been titled in the name of the government under Original Certificate of Title (OCT) No. 614 and was placed under the administration of the Director of Lands.

Controversy arising from conflicting claims over Lot 823 began to surface after a fire gutted portions of the Quezon City Hall in 1988, which destroyed records stored in the Office of the Register of Deeds, including that of Lot 823.

Sometime in 1990, a petition for administrative reconstitution of TCT No. 372302 in the name of the Manotoks covering Lot 823 with an area of 342,945 square meters was filed by the Manotoks with the Land Registration Authority (LRA), which granted the same resulting in the issuance of TCT No. RT-22481 in 1991.

In 1996 or eight years after the fire, the Barques filed a petition with the LRA for administrative reconstitution of the original of TCT No. 210177 in the name of Homer Barque and covering Lot 823 of the Piedad Estate, alleged to be among those titles destroyed in the fire.

After a year, the LRA cancelled the title of the Manotoks and ordered the reconstitution of the Barques’ title. After their motion for reconsideration was denied by the agency, the Manotoks filed an appeal before the Court of Appeals (CA).

The CA eventually sustained the Manotoks in a joint resolution by two of its divisions. While the case was pending with the CA, Felicitas Manahan moved to intervene and sought the dismissal of the cases as she claimed ownership of the subject property.

On appeal by the Barques, the CA reconsidered its decision and ordered the Register of Deeds of Quezon City to cancel the title of the Manotoks and the LRA to reconstitute the Barques’ title.

The SC, acting on a petition filed by the Manotoks, upheld the CA ruling and even declared the Manotoks’ title as “sham and spurious.” The SC decision became final on April 19, 2006 and an entry of judgment was made on May 2, 2006.

However, when the Barques sought for the implementation of its own decision, the SC changed its mind. In a decision promulgated on December 18, 2008, the High Court recalled the entry of judgment and ordered the remand of the cases to the CA for further proceedings.

Based on the recommendations of the CA, the SC held that the Manotoks and the Barques failed to establish a valid claim over Lot 823.

The SC cited the finding of the Forensic Chemistry Division of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that the result of the chemical analysis of the Manotoks’ titles showed “they were not really as old as they purport to be.”

The NBI noted that the handwritten entries were found to be made in ballpoint pen and sign pen inks, which were not yet commercially available in the Philippines until 1953 and 1965.

As regards the Barques title, the SC cited the admission made by Teresita Barque-Hernandez that the certified true copy of Deed of Conveyance Record No. 4562 with Sale Certificate No. V-321 is a fake and spurious document.

The High Court said the CA noted that on its face, the document dated May 6, 1937 is spurious considering that while its heading “Republic of the Philippines Department of Agriculture and Commerce” and the consideration for the conveyance in Japanese war notes, “it is of judicial notice that the Republic of the Philippines was established only on July 4, 1946.

The CA added that the identified owner of the Piedad Estate should be “Gobierno de las Islas Filipinas” as stated in OCT 614, the SC said.

Thus, the SC declared that both the Manotoks and the Barques failed to prove by convincing evidence their acquisition of their titles.

“Considering that none of the parties has established a valid acquisition under the provisions of Act No. 1120 (Friar Lands Act), as amended, we therefore depot the recommendation of the CA declaring the Manotok title as null and void ab initio, and Lot 823 of the Piedad Estate as still part of the patrimonial property of the Government,” the SC said.