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THE
Zobel de Ayala family clarified that there is no Supreme
Court (SC) decision ordering any member of the family to
distribute any land in Calatagan, Batangas, to
agrarian-reform beneficiaries.
Mercedita Nolledo, the counsel for the Zobel family,
said that the 1965 Supreme Court decision involved the
claim of the government that a torrens title—TCT 9550—
derived from a title of Ayala y Cia covered “part of the
navigable water, or are portions of the sea, beach and
foreshores of the bay.”
The SC
upheld the trial court decision annulling the title.
Consequently, the Register of Deeds of Batangas canceled
TCT 9550.
However,
in 1988, the Court ordered further implementation of the
1965 decision on the ground that the decision declared
void not only TCT 9550, but also other titles not
identified in the decision.
The
Court said that TCT 9550 and the other titles were
issued over “about 2,000 hectares consisting of portions
of the territorial sea, the foreshore, the beach and
navigable waters properly belonging to the public
domain.”
As
directed by the Court, the Office of the Solicitor
General sought the assistance of the Register of Deeds
of Batangas and the chief of the Surveys Division of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Regional
Office IV in the implementation of the Court’s 1988
order.
In May
2000 the Register of Deeds reported to the Solicitor
General that his office has “fully executed” the 1965
Supreme Court decision with the cancellation of TCT 9550
and he “cannot register a judgment in respect of a
certificate of title or a parcel of land not
specifically described in the judgment.”
The
Register of Deeds also found that Alfonso Zobel and
Enrique Zobel transferred in 1956 to the Land Tenure
Administration, a government agency tasked to
“distribute as many family-size farms to as many
landless citizens,” 2,028 hectares of Hacienda Calatagan
and Hacienda Bigaa.
In July
2000 the chief of the DENR surveys division informed the
Solicitor General that he agreed with the Register of
Deeds and a land survey for further implementation of
the 1965 decision “will not serve any valid or practical
purpose.”
On the
basis of the reports of the Register of Deeds and the
chief of the DENR surveys division, the Regional Trial
Court in Batangas, in August 2000, declared the 1965
decision satisfied and ordered “the entry in the court
docket the satisfaction of the judgment.” |
