INTRODUCTION TO LAND REGISTRATION

ATTY. VIEN LAWRENCE S. GABATO

RELEVANT LAWS/PRINCIPLES
• Regalian Doctrine

• Commonwealth Act No. 141 (and companion

laws)

• PD 1529 (and companion laws)

Types of Land Grants
• Direct Grants

• Indirect Grants
DIRECT GRANTS
Section 8, CA 141

Only those lands shall be declared open to disposition or concession

which have been officially delimited and classified and, when
practicable, surveyed, and which have not been reserved for public
or quasi-public uses, nor appropriated by the Government, nor in
any manner become private property, nor those on which a private
right authorized and recognized by this Act or any other valid law
may be claimed, or which, having been reserved or appropriated,
have ceased to be so However, the President may, for reasons of
public interest, declare lands of the public domain open to
disposition before the same have had their boundaries established
or been surveyed, or may, for the same reason, suspend their
concession or disposition until they are again declared open to
concession or disposition by proclamation duly published or by Act
of the National Assembly.
DIRECT GRANT; GENERAL CONDITIONS
• Alienable/Disposable Land
• Surveyed/Delineated
• Cadastral
• Subdivision
• Isolated
• Not for Public use
• Not private lands/previously registered
CLASSIFICATION OF LANDS, ACCORDING TO
THE USE OR PURPOSES (SECTION 9, CA 141)

• Agricultural
• Residential commercial industrial or for similar
productive purposes
• Educational, charitable, or other similar
purposes
• Reservations for town sites and for public and
quasi-public uses.
ALLOWED DISPOSITION OF PUBLIC LANDS

• For homestead settlement

• By sale
• By lease
• By confirmation of imperfect or incomplete
titles:
• By judicial legalization
• By administrative legalization (free patent)
Types of Direct Grants

• Land Patents under CA 141(Free, Homestead,

Sale)
• Residential Free Patents (RA 10023)
• Agrarian Reform/CARP Law (RA 6657 as
amended by RA 9700)
• Indigenous People’s Rights (IPRA)
Indirect Grants
• PD 1529
General Principles of Land Registration
• Identity/Specialty

• Consent

• Booking/Recording

• Publicity
Torrens Registration System
• Origins/History
• Advantages of the System
• Principles
▫ Mirror
▫ Curtain
▫ Insurance
Land Registration Authority
• Powers and functions

• Ministerial Role of the Registry of Deeds

(Section 10, PD 1529)
Thank you!

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VIEN LAWRENCE S. GABATO, Esq.
Attorney and Counselor-at-Law
15092 Christopher Street, San Agustin Village
Brgy. Moonwalk, 1709 Paranaque City
(0995)870-6867