THE PUBLIC LAND ACT

Commonwealth Act 141

 TOPICS

A. PRELIMINARIES C.

1. Governing Law 1. General Classification of Lands

2. Historical Background 2. Classification of Lands under PLA

3. Policy Considerations 3. Classification of Lands Open to Dispostion

4. Regalian Doctrine 4. Executive Prerogative

5. Public Lands vs. Government Lands

Surallah E. Reyes-Abeto
Faculty, Geodetic Engineering Department
College of Engineering
St. John Paul II College of Davao

2
PRELIMINARIES
GOVERNING LAW, LMB and its Evolution
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – The Land Management Bureau

 Land Management Bureau (and the regional Land Management

Sector) was organized on September 2, 1901 under Act 218 as
the Insular Bureau of Public Lands (IBPL) with the mandate of
supervising the survey and distribution of public lands in the
Philippine Islands.

4
The PUBLIC LAND ACT

 William Tipton was appointed as the first chief of the IBPL.

Under his supervision, the Bureau planned out a system for the
survey of the archipelago and in 1903 implemented Act 926 or
the first Public Land Act of the country which became the basis
of public land disposition thereafter.

5
The PUBLIC LAND ACT

 Disposition under this law was done by way of homestead, free patent,
sale and lease of public lands suitable for agriculture.

 The name Insular Bureau of Public Land was later changed by virtue of
Act 1470 to the Bureau of Lands, the name became popularly known to
the masses who are the direct beneficiary of public agricultural lands
for distribution.

6
The PUBLIC LAND ACT

 The Bureau of Lands was likewise mandated to administer the

distribution of friar lands under Act 1120 in 1903. It is the first land
reform program in the country as vast tract of the most productive
agricultural lands were purchased by the Insular Government from
religious orders and agricultural corporations and sold to actual
occupants and settlers.

7
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Introduction of Cadastral Survey

 A cadastral survey refers to a survey conducted to delineate political

boundaries and to determine the metes and bounds of all parcels within an
entire municipality or city for land registration, land titling, and other
purposes.

8
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Introduction of Cadastral Survey

 In order to expedite public land distribution, then Director of Lands

Chas H. Sleeper introduced cadastral surveying, a public land survey
that covers an extensive area, usually an entire municipality,
subdividing the same into parcels for purposes of public land
distribution.

9
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Introduction of Cadastral Survey

 The first cadastral survey project (Cadastral Project No. 1) was conducted in Pilar,
Bataan in November 1908.

 In 1913, Act No. 2259, otherwise known as the Cadastral Act, was implemented
providing for a procedure of judicial adjudication of public lands. Under his
leadership, he established the first Survey School in Manila High School (MHS) sometime
in 1908 to train Filipino surveyors. It was later transferred to the Philippine School of
Trade and Arts (PSTA). The first Filipino to head the bureau was the former
revolutionary general, Gen. Manuel Tinio which held office from 1913 - 1914.

10
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Amendment of Act 926

 Finding the potential impact of the disposition activity for the people and for the
economy as a whole, Director Rafael Corpus chartered the revision of Act 926 to
increase patent distribution.

 The Second Public Land Act (Act 2874) was thus enacted on 1919 in order to hasten
the disposition of public agricultural lands to the Filipinos by introducing the
system of land classification and increasing the homestead area from sixteen (16)
hectares to twenty four (24) hectares.

11
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Amendment of Act 926

 Under the leadership of Director Jose B. Vargas, the Survey School of the Bureau was
transferred to the University of the Philippines (UP), College of Engineering in 1925.

 It was also during this time that the Bureau of Lands was divided into nine (9)
inspection district and thirty two (32) district land offices in order to decentralize
land surveying and processing of land patent application to the provinces.
However, the appointment of district land officers were done by designation only
among surveyors, public land inspectors, land attorneys, and clerks.

12
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – The Enactment

 It is only in 1939, during the incumbency of Director Jose P. Dans, the position of District
Land Offices (DLOs) was formally created under Executive Order No. 246, DLOs were
authorized for the first time to render decisions on important matters. During the advent of
the Commonwealth Government, Commonwealth Act No. 141, the Public Land Act of
1936 was enacted which up to now is still the governing law on our public lands.

 Before the start of the war, the Bureau was able to issue a total of 93,694 patents and had
conducted a total of 289 cadastral surveys by the Bureau, the last being Cad – 289 in
Manay, Davao Oriental for judicial titling.

13
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Post War, fast track land distribution

 In 1953, the Bureau of Lands entered the era of modernization under the leadership of
Director Zoilo Castrillo, with the introduction of IBM and Remington Rand, produced
computing machines capable of handling bulk computations.

 The bureau became the most advanced government agency in the Philippines in terms of
electronic computing. This effort was made in order to respond to the need to speed up the
distribution of public agricultural lands in the rural area due to the agrarian unrest in the
countryside and to reconstruct records damaged from the war. From 1950 to 1960, 1.4
million hectares of agricultural lands were distributed by the bureau which double that of
the 1930-1940 period.

14
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Devolution of functions of LMB

 In 1972, Republic Act No. 6516 was enacted authorizing the district
land officers in every province to sign patents not exceeding five (5) hectares
thereby fully devolving the functions to the district offices. Because of the
devolution, more than two (2) million hectares of agricultural land was
distributed by the Bureau of Lands from 1970 to 1980 under the
leadership of then Director Ramon Casanova.

15
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Reorganization of the DENR

 Executive Order No. 192 organized the Department of Environment of Natural

Resources (DENR) in June 1987.

 The new organizational set - up integrated the Bureau of Lands District Land Offices
to the field offices of the DENR and transformed the Bureau’s Central Office to the
Land Management Bureau under this set-up LMB became a staff bureau. The re-
organized Bureau spearheaded the distribution of public agricultural lands through the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of the government distributing 1.32
million hectares to the rural community.

16
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Important Transitions

 Act 926, the First Public Land Act was passed in pursuance of the Philippine Bill of
1902

 The Philippine Organic Act or the Philippine Bill of 1902 or the Cooper Act in honor of
its author Henry A. Cooper, was the basic law for the American Insular Government in
the Philippines. This was enacted by the United States Congress on July 1, 1902.

 It created the precursor of the present Philippine Congress, with the Philippine
Commission as its upper house, and the Philippine Assembly as the lower house.

17
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Important Transitions

 Act 926, important features:

a. Governed the disposition of lands of the public domain;

b. Prescribed rules and regulations for homesteading, selling, and leasing portions of the public
domain of the Philippines; and
c. Prescribed the terms and conditions to enable persons to perfect their titles to public lands in
the Islands.
d. Provided for the "issuance of patents to certain native settlers upon public lands," for the
establishment of town sites and sale of lots therein, for the completion of imperfect titles, and
for the cancellation or confirmation of Spanish concessions and grants in the Islands."

18
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Important Transitions

 Act No. 2874, superseded Act 926 in 1919. It became the Second Public Land Act. It
was passed under the Jones Law.

 The Jones Law (39 Stat. 545, . 416, also known as the Jones Act, the Philippine Autonomy
Act, and the Act of Congress of August 29, 1916) was an Organic Act passed by the United
States Congress. The law replaced the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 and acted as a
constitution of the Philippines from its enactment until 1934, when the Tydings–
McDuffie Act was passed (which in turn led eventually to the Commonwealth of the
Philippines and to independence from the United States). The Jones Law created the first
fully elected Philippine legislature.

19
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Important Transitions

 Act No. 2874, was more comprehensive in scope but limited the
exploitation of agricultural lands to Filipinos and Americans and
citizens of other countries which gave Filipinos the same
privileges.

20
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Important Transitions

 CA 141, was passed after the passage of the 1935 Constitution. Enacted on November
7, 1936, the PLA is essentially the same with Act No. 2874.

 Section 103 of PD 1529 or the Property Registration Decree [formerly Section 122 of
Act No. 496 or Land Registration Act] brings the grants of public lands under the
operation of the Torrens system of registration.

 The instruments mentioned in Section 103 whereby public lands are “alienated,
granted or conveyed” are instruments transferring ownership – not documents of lease,
transferring mere possession.

21
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Important Transitions

 The provision directs the issuance to the grantee of "an owner's duplicate certificate."
After due registration and issuance of the certificate of title, the land shall be deemed
registered land to all intents and purposes under the Property Registration Decree.

 Public land patents when duly registered are veritable Torrens titles subject to no
encumbrances except those stated therein, plus those specified by the statute. 'l'hey
become private property which can no longer be the subject of subsequent disposition
by the Director of Lands.

22
The PUBLIC LAND ACT – Important Transitions

 The Public Land Act, compiled the then existing laws on lands of
the public domain, remains to this day the existing general law
governing the classification and disposition of lands of the
public domain other than timber and mineral lands.

23
THANK
YOU!

24