In Republic v. St. Augustine Realty and Development Corporation, G.R. No. 268461, 7 April 2025, the Supreme Court clarified an important procedural rule in land registration -- publication and posting are no longer jurisdictional requirements when cancelling the statutory encumbrance on an administratively reconstituted title, provided the petition is filed more than 2 years after reconstitution and no adverse claims were made during that period.
Under Republic Act No. 26, certificates of title that are administratively reconstituted are issued with a built-in statutory encumbrance protecting possible prior claimants. As a rule, RA 26 requires that any petition to cancel this encumbrance must undergo publication in the Official Gazette and posting, because such proceedings are in rem and jurisdiction is acquired through notice to the whole world.
However, the SC emphasized that this rule is not without any exception, since a proviso in Section 9 clearly states that after 2 years from reconstitution, if no claims or interests have been asserted, the encumbrance may be cancelled by mere ex parte motion, without publication or posting. At that point, the court may directly order the Register of Deeds to cancel the annotation (of course, upon the filing of the requisite petition for the cancellation or removal of encumbrance).
The High Court further reasoned that this exception exists because the law itself already granted sufficient opportunity for claimants to come forward during the two-year window. Requiring publication beyond that period would defeat the very purpose of the Torrens system, which is to ensure finality, stability, and indefeasibility of titles. Once the statutory period lapses, the need for notice disappears because the legal presumption shifts in favor of absolute ownership.
In practical terms, this ruling means that property owners with long-standing administratively reconstituted titles can remove the statutory encumbrance annotated the said titles swiftly and (relatively) inexpensivley, without the delays and costs of publication -- so long as the two-year period has passed without contest.
(Atty. Aaron Jarveen O. Ho is the Managing Partner of HG Law. For questions or comments, you may reach him at aoho@hglaw.ph)