Cruz and Europa v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources

A torrens title recognizes the owner whose name appears in the certificate as entitled to all the rights of ownership under the civil law. The Civil Code of the Philippines defines ownership in Articles 427, 428 and 429. This concept is based on Roman Law which the Spaniards introduced to the Philippines through the Civil Code of 1889. Ownership, under Roman Law, may be exercised over things or rights. It primarily includes the right of the owner to enjoy and dispose of the thing owned. And the right to enjoy and dispose of the thing includes the right to receive from the thing what it produces,[205] the right to consume the thing by its use,[206] the right to alienate, encumber, transform or even destroy the thing owned,[207] and the right to exclude from the possession of the thing owned by any other person to whom the owner has not transmitted such thing.[208] 1. The Indigenous Concept of Ownership and Customary Law. Ownership of ancestral domains by native title does not entitle the ICC/IP to a torrens title but to a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). The CADT formally recognizes the indigenous concept of ownership of the ICCs/IPs over their ancestral domain. Thus: "Sec. 5. Indigenous concept of ownership.- Indigenous concept of ownership sustains the view that ancestral domains and all resources found therein shall serve as the material bases of their cultural integrity. The indigenous concept of ownership generally holds that ancestral domains are the ICCs/IPs private but community property which belongs to all generations and therefore cannot be sold, disposed or destroyed. It likewise covers sustainable traditional resource rights." The right of ownership and possession of the ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains is held under the indigenous concept of ownership. This concept maintains the view that ancestral domains are the ICCs/IPs private but community property. It is private simply because it is not part of the public domain. But its private character ends there. The ancestral domain is owned in common by the ICCs/IPs and not by one particular person. The IPRA itself provides that areas within the ancestral domains, whether delineated or not, are presumed to be communally held.[209] These communal rights, however, are not exactly the same as co-ownership rights under the Civil Code.[210] Co-ownership gives any co-owner the right to demand partition of the property held in common. The Civil Code expressly provides that "[n]o co-owner shall be obliged to remain in the co-ownership." Each co-owner may demand at any time the partition of the thing in common, insofar as his share is concerned.[211] To allow such a right over ancestral domains may be destructive not only of customary law of the community but of the very community itself.[212] Communal rights over land are not the same as corporate rights over real property, much less corporate condominium rights. A corporation can exist only for a maximum of fifty (50) years subject to an extension of another fifty years in any single instance.[213] Every stockholder has the right to disassociate himself from the corporation.[214] Moreover, the corporation itself may be dissolved voluntarily or involuntarily.[215] Communal rights to the land are held not only by the present possessors of the land but extends to all generations of the ICCs/IPs, past, present and future, to the domain. This is the reason why the ancestral domain must be kept within the ICCs/IPs themselves. The domain cannot be transferred, sold or conveyed to other persons. It belongs to the ICCs/IPs as a community. Ancestral lands are also held under the indigenous concept of ownership. The lands are communal. These lands, however, may be transferred subject to the following limitations: (a) only to the members of the same ICCs/IPs; (b) in accord with customary laws and traditions; and (c) subject to the right of redemption of the ICCs/IPs for a period of 15 years if the land was transferred to a non-member of the ICCs/IPs. Following the constitutional mandate that "customary law govern property rights or relations in determining the