G. R. No.

142549, March 09, 2010

FIDELA
R.
ANGELES,
PETITIONER,
VS.
THE
SECRETARY OF JUSTICE, THE
ADMINISTRATOR,
LAND
REGISTRATION AUTHORITY, THE
REGISTER
OF
DEEDS
OF
QUEZON CITY, AND SENATOR
TEOFISTO T. GUINGONA, JR.,
RESPONDENTS.
Facts:
The property involved in this case is covered
by Original Certificate of Title (OCT) No. 994,
which encompasses One Thousand Three
Hundred Forty-Two (1,342) hectares of the
Maysilo Estate.
On May 3, 1965, petitioner, together with
other individuals, all of them claiming to be
the heirs of a certain Maria de la Concepcion
Vidal, and alleging that they are entitled to
inherit her proportional share in the parcels
of land located in Quezon City and in the

municipalities of Caloocan and Malabon,

Province of Rizal, commenced a special civil
action for partition and accounting of the
property otherwise known as Maysilo Estate
covered by OCT No. 994, allegedly registered
on April 19, 1917 with the Registry of Deeds
of Caloocan City.
In the RTC Order sought to be implemented,
Judge Jaime D. Discaya granted the
partition and accounting prayed for by
plaintiffs in that case; directed the respective
Registers of Deeds of Caloocan City and
Quezon City to issue transfer certificates of
title in the names of all the co-owners,
including petitioner, for twelve (12) parcels of
land with an aggregate area of One Hundred
Five Thousand and Nine Hundred Sixty-Nine
square meters (105,969 sq. m.), more or less;
and ordered that said parcels of land be sold,
subject to the confirmation of the Court, and
the proceeds be divided among the plaintiffs
in proportion to their respective interests in
the property.
Petitioner alleges that the respective
Registers of Deeds of Caloocan City and
Quezon City refused to comply with the RTC

Order because they were still awaiting word

from
the
LRA
Administrator
before
proceeding. Counsel for petitioner then
requested the LRA Administrator to direct
said Registers of Deeds to comply with the
Order.
Petitioner avers that respondent Guingona, in
issuing the 1st Indorsement, made a
substantive modification of the ruling made
by this Court in MWSS v. Court of Appeals
and Heirs of Luis Gonzaga v. Court of
Appeals. She further avers that " [n]ot even
the Secretary of Justice has the power or
authority to set aside or alter an established
ruling made by the highest Court of the
land." According to petitioner, respondent
Guingona claimed to have made his own
finding that there is only one OCT No. 994
which was issued by the Register of Deeds of
Rizal on May 3, 1917, and not on April 19,
1917, and this finding is a reversal of the
decisions of this Court on "what is the valid
OCT No. 994." Petitioner contends that "[t]he
rule is well settled that once a decision
becomes final[,] the Court can no longer
amend, modify, much less set aside the same"
and that respondent Guingona usurped

judicial functions and did a prohibited act

which rendered the Order of no effect.
In his Comment, respondent Guingona
raises the following grounds for denial of the
petition:
1.

2.

3.

Petitioner has no cause of action against

respondent Guingona in that the latter is
no longer the Secretary of Justice.
The issuance of the 1st Indorsement dated
September 22, 1997 was pursuant to the
report dated August 27, 1997 made by
the committee created by Department
Order No. 137 dated April 23, 1997 after
conducting an independent fact-finding
investigation. It did not in any way alter
or modify any judgment of this Honorable
Court.
Petitioner was not denied due process as her
rights, if any, under the Order dated
January 18, 1998 were not yet in
existence at the time the 1st Indorsement
was issued.

4. Mandamus is not the appropriate remedy

to enforce claims of damages.

Respondent Guingona contends that he was

no longer the Secretary of Justice, therefore,
he did not anymore possess the mandatory
duties being compelled to be performed in
this case by way of a writ of mandamus; he
had no more duty resulting from the said
position and could not perform an act that
pertained to said duty, even if he wanted to;
and since he did not have the powers and
duties of the Secretary of Justice, he was
therefore not a real party-in-interest in this
case
Respondent Guingona contends that it can be
gleaned from the purpose of the creation of
the
committee
that
its
fact-finding
investigation was merely administrative to
formulate
and
recommend
policies,
procedures and courses of action which the
DOJ, the LRA, the Office of the Solicitor
General and other agencies of the DOJ can
adopt with regard to the problem of the
proliferation of fake land titles, including
those that relate to the Maysilo Estate. He
alleges that based on this committee's report
dated August 27, 1997, he issued the subject

1st Indorsement which spelled out the

policies, procedures, and courses of action
which the LRA, an agency under the DOJ,
must follow not only with respect to OCT No.
994 and its derivative titles covering the
Maysilo Estate but to all other original or
transfer certificates of title as well. He
contends that the 1st Indorsement was
merely an administrative issuance of the DOJ;
thus, it could not be said that it altered or
supplanted any judgment of this Court.
Petitioner avers that private respondent
seemed to assume a function that did not
belong to the Executive Department, because
he had caused the issuance of an LRA
Circular that forbade compliance with a court
order that had already become final and
executory. Petitioner likewise avers that the
doctrine of separation of powers called for
each branch of government to be left alone to
discharge its functions within its jurisdiction,
as it saw fit. Public respondents Secretary of
Justice, the Administrator of the Land
Registration Authority, and the Register of
Deeds of Quezon City filed their Comment
on November 16, 2000. Public respondents

claim that petitioner and her co-plaintiffs are

not the rightful owners of the property
subject of said complaint for partition. Their
allegation in the complaint that they are the
heirs and successors-in-interest of the late
Maria de la Concepcion Vidal, co-owner of
the parcels of land described in OCT No. 994,
and
are
therefore
entitled
to
the
proportionate
share,
ownership,
and
possession of the parcels of land described in
paragraphs XI to XV of the complaint, is an
untrue statement made with intent to
deceive. This is because the findings
embodied in the Report of the Fact Finding
Committee created by the DOJ, which are the
result of the joint undertaking of the
Department proper, the Office of the Solicitor
General, and the LRA, support the conclusion
that petitioner and her co-plaintiffs are not
entitled to the issuance of new transfer
certificates of title in their names.
Issue:
whether public respondents unlawfully
neglected to perform their duties by their
refusal to issue the questioned transfer

certificates of title to petitioner and her coplaintiffs (in Civil Case No. C-424) or have
unlawfully excluded petitioner from the use
and enjoyment of whatever claimed right, as
would warrant the issuance of a writ of
mandamus against said public respondents.
Considering the factual background and
recent
jurisprudence
related
to
this
controversy as will be discussed below, we
find that it was not unlawful for public
respondents to refuse compliance with the
RTC Order, and the act being requested of
them is not their ministerial duty; hence,
mandamus does not lie and the petition must
be dismissed.
Rule 65 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure
provides:
SECTION 3. Petition for mandamus. -- When
any tribunal, corporation, board, officer or
person unlawfully neglects the performance
of an act which the law specifically enjoins as
a duty resulting from an office, trust, or
station, or unlawfully excludes another from
the use and enjoyment of a right or office to
which such other is entitled, and there is no
other plain, speedy and adequate remedy in

the ordinary course of law, the person

aggrieved thereby may file a verified petition
in the proper court, alleging the facts with
certainty and praying that judgment be
rendered commanding the
respondent,
immediately or at some other time to be
specified by the court, to do the act required
to be done to protect the rights of the
petitioner, and to pay the damages sustained
by the petitioner by reason of the wrongful
acts of the respondent.
It is settled that mandamus is employed to
compel the performance, when refused, of a
ministerial duty, but not to compel the
performance
of
a
discretionary
duty.
Mandamus will not issue to enforce a right
which is in substantial dispute or to which a
substantial doubt exists. It is nonetheless
likewise available to compel action, when
refused, in matters involving judgment and
discretion, but not to direct the exercise of
judgment or discretion in a particular way or
the retraction or reversal of an action already
taken in the exercise of either.
In this regard, we find our discussion in

Laburada v. Land Registration Authority[29]>

instructive, to wit:
That the LRA hesitates in issuing a decree of
registration is understandable. Rather than a
sign of negligence or nonfeasance in the
performance of its duty, the LRA's reaction is
reasonable, even imperative. Considering
the probable duplication of titles over
the same parcel of land, such issuance
may contravene the policy and the
purpose,
and
thereby
destroy
the
integrity, of the Torrens system of
registration.
xxxx
x x x Likewise, the writ of mandamus can be
awarded only when the petitioners' legal
right to the performance of the particular act
which is sought to be compelled is clear and
complete. Under Rule 65 of the Rules of
Court, a clear legal right is a right which is
indubitably granted by law or is inferable as
a matter of law. If the right is clear and the
case is meritorious, objections raising merely
technical questions will be disregarded. But
where the right sought to be enforced is in

substantial doubt or dispute, as in this case,

mandamus cannot issue. (Emphasis ours.)
As can be gleaned from the above discussion,
the issuance by the LRA officials of a decree
of registration is not a purely ministerial duty
in cases where they find that such would
result to the double titling of the same parcel
of land. In the same vein, we find that in this
case, which involves the issuance of transfer
certificates of title, the Register of Deeds
cannot be compelled by mandamus to comply
with the RTC Order since there were existing
transfer certificates of title covering the
subject parcels of land and there was reason
to question the rights of those requesting for
the issuance of the TCTs. Neither could
respondent LRA Administrator be mandated
by the Court to require the Register of Deeds
to comply with said Order, for we find merit
in the explanations of respondent LRA
Administrator in his letter-reply that cites the
1st Indorsement issued by respondent
Guingona, LRA Circular No. 97-11, and
Senate Committee Report No. 1031, as
reasons for his refusal to grant petitioner's
request. There was, therefore, sufficient basis

for public respondents to refuse to comply

with the RTC Order, given the finding,
contained in the cited documents, that OCT
No. 994 dated April 19, 1917, on which
petitioner and her co-plaintiffs in the civil
case clearly anchored their rights, did not
exist.
As stated earlier, petitioner anchors her claim
on previous cases decided by this Court
which have held that there are two existing
OCT No. 994, dated differently, and the one
from which she and her co-plaintiffs (in Civil
Case No. C- 424) derived their rights was
dated earlier, hence, was the superior title.
Regrettably, petitioner's claim no longer has
a leg to stand on. As we held in the 2007
Manotok case:
The determinative test to resolve whether the
prior decision of this Court should be
affirmed or set aside is whether or not the
titles invoked by the respondents are valid. If
these titles are sourced from the so-called
OCT No. 994 dated 17 April 1917, then such
titles are void or otherwise should not be
recognized by this Court. Since the true basic
factual predicate concerning OCT No. 994

which is that there is only one such OCT

differs from that expressed in the MWSS and
Gonzaga decisions, said rulings have become
virtually functus officio except on the basis of
the "law of the case" doctrine, and can no
longer be relied upon as precedents.
Specifically, petitioner cannot anymore insist
that OCT No. 994 allegedly issued on April
19, 1917 validly and actually exists, given the
following conclusions made by this Court in
the 2007 Manotok case:
First, there is only one OCT No. 994. As it
appears on the record, that mother title
was received for transcription by the
Register of Deeds on 3 May 1917, and
that should be the date which should be
reckoned as the date of registration of
the title. It may also be acknowledged, as
appears on the title, that OCT No. 994
resulted from the issuance of the decree of
registration on April 1917, although such
date cannot be considered as the date of the
title or the date when the title took effect.
Second. Any title that traces its source to

OCT No. 994 dated April 1917 is void,

for such mother title is inexistent. The
fact that the Dimson and CLT titles made
specific reference to an OCT No. 994 dated
April 1917 casts doubt on the validity of such
titles since they refer to an inexistent OCT. x
x x.
Third. The decisions of this Court in
MWSS v. Court of Appeals and Gonzaga v.
Court of Appeals cannot apply to the cases
at bar, especially in regard to their
recognition of an OCT No. 994 dated 19
April 1917, a title which we now
acknowledge as inexistent. Neither could
the conclusions in MWSS or Gonzaga with
respect to an OCT No. 994 dated 19 April
1917 bind any other case operating
under the factual setting the same as or
similar to that at bar. (Emphases supplied.)
Thus, in the 2009 Manotok case, this Court
evaluated the evidence engaged in by said
Special Division, and adopted the latter's
conclusions as to the status of the original
title and its subsequent conveyances. This
case affirmed the earlier finding that "there is
only one OCT No. 994, the registration date

of which had already been decisively settled

as 3 May 1917 and not 19 April 1917" and
categorically concluded that "OCT No. 994
which reflects the date of 19 April 1917
as its registration date is null and void."