The judicial titling of alienable and disposable agricultural lands was simplified by R.A. No. 11573, which took effect on 1 September 2021. Specifically, R.A. No. 11573 streamlined the procedure and the requirements for judicial confirmation of imperfect title under Section 48 of the Public Land Act and Section 14 of the Property Registration Decree. The salient features of R.A. No. 11573 are as follows:
1. Section 6 of R.A. No. 11573 shortens the period of possession required under the old Section 14(1) of the Property Registration Decree. Instead of requiring applicants to establish their possession from “June 12, 1945, or earlier”, the new Section 14(1) only requires proof of possession “at least 20 years immediately preceding the filing of the application for confirmation of title except when prevented by war or force majeure.”
2. The presentation of the approved survey plan bearing a certification signed by a duly designated DENR geodetic engineer stating that the land subject of the application for registration forms part of the alienable and disposable agricultural land of the public domain shall be sufficient proof of its classification as such, provided that the certification bears references to the documents or information stated in Section 7 of R.A. No. 11573.
Section 7 does away with the stringent documentary requirements of a certificate of land classification status issued by the CENRO or the PENRO of the DENR, which must be approved by the DENR Secretary, and supported by a verification survey by the CENRO or PENRO.
Under Section 7, the certification by the DENR geodetic engineer “shall be sufficient proof of its classification” as alienable and disposable agricultural land. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court en banc in the recent case of Republic v. Pasig Rizal Co., Inc., held that “[t]he DENR geodetic engineer must be presented as witness for proper authentication of the certification in accordance with the Rules of Court.” The rationale for this according to the Court is that the certification of the DENR geodetic engineer is not a public document under Rule 132 of the Rules of Court.
Holding that DENR geodetic engineer’s certification is not a public document should be re-examined
The requirement that the DENR geodetic engineer must be presented in court to authenticate the certification should be re-examined. It is submitted that such a certification is a public document as provided for in Section 19(a), Rule 132 of the Rules of Court. Section 19(a) states that “[t]he written official acts, or records of the official acts of … public officers” are considered as public documents which do not require authentication to be received in evidence.
The Court based its holding on the case of Republic v. Galeno, which held that such certifications issued by the DENR with respect to land classification status “do not fall within the class of public documents contemplated in the first sentence of Section 23 of Rule 132.” The first sentence of Section 23 reads as follows: “[d]ocuments consisting of entries in public records made in the performance of a duty by a public officer are prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein.” Hence, the Court held that a DENR certification is not prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein.
No clear explanation was given in Galeno as to why the DENR certification did not fall within the first sentence of Section 23. The statement appears to be self-levitating or cryptic. In fact, with the passage of R.A. No. 11573, it becomes clearer that such a certification is made in the performance of a duty by the DENR geodetic engineer.
A public document is defined not in Section 23 but in Section 19(a) of Rule 132. The certification of the DENR geodetic engineer is doubtless a written official act or a record of an official act of a public officer under the terms of Section 19(a).
Moreover, Section 23 of Rule 132 should be read in conjunction with Section 46 on the official records exception to the hearsay rule. Section 46 provides that “[e]ntries in official records made in the performance of his or her duty by a public officer of the Philippines … are prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein.” A perusal of these provisions, as well as the relevant jurisprudence, shows that the term “public record” in Section 23 of Rule 132 is interchangeable with “official record” used in Section 46 of Rule 132 and “official acts or records” found in Section 19(a) of Rule 132.
In fine, a certification by the DENR geodetic engineer as to the land classification status is a public document under Section 19(a) of Rule 132 which does not need to be authenticated. It is also an official record exempted from the hearsay rule under Section 46 of Rule 130. Hence, there is no need to present in court the geodetic engineer and such a certification is considered as prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein under both Section 46 of Rule 130 and Section 23 of Rule 132.
Being a public document, specifically an official or public record, the certification may as a rule be safely relied upon by the court as proof of its contents, especially taking into account Section 8 of R.A. No. 11573 which imposes criminal sanctions upon a geodetic engineer who prepares, willingly or through gross inexcusable negligence, a projection map that contains false, fraudulent, or incomplete data or information, and the DENR official who shall certify and approve such protection map.
Dispensing with the need for the geodetic engineer’s testimony in court will simplify the process of titling alienable and disposable lands and greatly advance the objective of R.A. No. 11573 to aid landowners unlock the economic potential of their lands. It will also relieve the DENR geodetic engineers of the burden of appearing in court and allow them to concentrate on their core functions.
Source: Legisperit