Secretary of DENR vs Yap

Natural Resources
Regalian Doctrine

and

HELD:
Environmental

Laws:

GR No. 167707; Oct 8, 2008

FACTS:
This petition is for a review on certiorari of the
decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) affirming that
of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Kalibo Aklan,
which granted the petition for declaratory relief filed
by respondents-claimants Mayor Jose Yap et al,
and ordered the survey of Boracay for titling
purposes.
On Nov. 10, 1978, President Marcos issued
Proclamation No. 1801 declaring Boracay Island as
a tourist zone and marine reserve. Claiming that
Proc. No. 1801 precluded them from filing an
application for a judicial confirmation of imperfect
title or survey of land for titling purposes,
respondents-claimants
filed
a
petition
for
declaratory relief with the RTC in Kalibo, Aklan.
The Republic, through the Office of the Solicitor
General (OSG) opposed the petition countering that
Boracay Island was an unclassified land of the
public domain. It formed part of the mass of lands
classified as public forest, which was not available
for disposition pursuant to section 3(a) of PD No.
705 or the Revised Forestry Code.

ISSUE: Whether unclassified lands of the public

domain are automatically deemed agricultural land,
therefore making these lands alienable.

No. To prove that the land subject of an application

for registration is alienable, the applicant must
establish the existence of a positive act of the
government such as a presidential proclamation or
an executive order, an administrative action,
investigative reports of the Bureau of Lands
investigators, and a legislative act or statute.
A positive act declaring land as alienable and
disposable is required. In keeping with the
presumption of state ownership, the Court has time
and again emphasized that there must be a positive
act of the government, such as an official
proclamation, declassifying inalienable public land
into disposable land for agricultural or other
purposes.
The Regalian Doctrine dictates that all lands of the
public domain belong to the State, that the State is
the source of any asserted right to ownership of
land and charged with the conservation of such
patrimony.

All lands not otherwise appearing to be clearly

within private ownership are presumed to belong to
the State. Thus, all lands that have not been
acquired from the government, either by purchase
or by grant, belong to the State as part of the
inalienable public domain.