CHAPTER III

ORIGINAL REGISTRATION

I
ORDINARY REGISTRATION PROCEEDINGS

A. APPLICATIONS

Section 14. Who may apply. The following persons may file in the proper Court of First Instance an
application for registration of title to land, whether personally or through their duly authorized
representatives:

(1) Those who by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest have been in open,
continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation of alienable and disposable
lands of the public domain under a bona fide claim of ownership since June 12, 1945, or
earlier.

(2) Those who have acquired ownership of private lands by prescription under the provision
of existing laws.

(3) Those who have acquired ownership of private lands or abandoned river beds by right of
accession or accretion under the existing laws.

(4) Those who have acquired ownership of land in any other manner provided for by law.

Where the land is owned in common, all the co-owners shall file the application jointly.

Where the land has been sold under pacto de retro, the vendor a retro may file an application for the
original registration of the land, provided, however, that should the period for redemption expire
during the pendency of the registration proceedings and ownership to the property consolidated in
the vendee a retro, the latter shall be substituted for the applicant and may continue the
proceedings.

A trustee on behalf of his principal may apply for original registration of any land held in trust by him,
unless prohibited by the instrument creating the trust.
 CHAPTER XIII
DEALINGS WITH UNREGISTERED LANDS

Section 113. Recording of instruments relating to unregistered lands. No deed, conveyance,

mortgage, lease, or other voluntary instrument affecting land not registered under the Torrens
system shall be valid, except as between the parties thereto, unless such instrument shall have been
recorded in the manner herein prescribed in the office of the Register of Deeds for the province or
city where the land lies.

(a) The Register of Deeds for each province or city shall keep a Primary Entry Book and a
Registration Book. The Primary Entry Book shall contain, among other particulars, the entry
number, the names of the parties, the nature of the document, the date, hour and minute it
was presented and received. The recording of the deed and other instruments relating to
unregistered lands shall be effected by any of annotation on the space provided therefor in
the Registration Book, after the same shall have been entered in the Primary Entry Book.

(b) If, on the face of the instrument, it appears that it is sufficient in law, the Register of
Deeds shall forthwith record the instrument in the manner provided herein. In case the
Register of Deeds refuses its administration to record, said official shall advise the party in
interest in writing of the ground or grounds for his refusal, and the latter may appeal the
matter to the Commissioner of Land Registration in accordance with the provisions of
Section 117 of this Decree. It shall be understood that any recording made under this section
shall be without prejudice to a third party with a better right.

(c) After recording on the Record Book, the Register of Deeds shall endorse among other
things, upon the original of the recorded instruments, the file number and the date as well as
the hour and minute when the document was received for recording as shown in the Primary
Entry Book, returning to the registrant or person in interest the duplicate of the instrument,
with appropriate annotation, certifying that he has recorded the instrument after reserving
one copy thereof to be furnished the provincial or city assessor as required by existing law.

(d) Tax sale, attachment and levy, notice of lis pendens, adverse claim and other instruments
in the nature of involuntary dealings with respect to unregistered lands, if made in the form
sufficient in law, shall likewise be admissible to record under this section.

(e) For the services to be rendered by the Register of Deeds under this section, he shall
collect the same amount of fees prescribed for similar services for the registration of deeds
or instruments concerning registered lands.