MUNICIPALITY OF SAN CARLOS, PANGASINAN, REPRESENTED BY MAYOR LUIS G. CAYABYAB, PETITIONER, VS. HON. JESUS P. MORFE, JUDGE OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF PANGASINAN, DIRECTOR …

Original action for mandamtts to compel respondent, Hon. Jesus P.
Morfe, as Judge of the Court of First Instance of Pangasinan, to allow
petitioner, the Municipality of San Carlos, Pangasinan, to intervene in
Civil Case No. 13788 and in Cadastral Case No. 60 both of the Court of
First Instance of said province. Shortly after the filing of the
petition herein, and as prayed for therein, we issued a writ of
preliminary injunction restraining said court from resuming the hearing
of said cases, which had begun prior thereto, until further orders from
this Court.

This case refers to Lot No. 986 of said Cadastral Case No. 60,
G.L.R.O. Rec. No. 1437, which had been pending before the Court of
First Instance of Pangasinan even before the war in the Pacific. In
February 1960, Mariano Austria filed therein an answer claiming a
portion of said lot. No other party has claimed it, apart from
petitioner therein, the Director of Lands, in said cadastral case.

It appears that on October 6, 1958, several persons, surnamed
Bugayong, Agbuya, Padian, Romero and Signo, instituted Civil Case No.
13788 of said court against the Director of Lands, Adela de la Cruz,
Pedro Lee and Mariano Austriar alleging, substantially, that Lot No.
986 formerly belonged to Pedro Agbuya y Guzman and Antonio Agbuya y
Cabrera, who died in 1895 and 1902, respectively; the plaintiffs are
the descendants and heirs of said deceased, and, hence, the owners of
the aforementioned Lot No. 986; that plaintiffs and their predecessors
in interest had been in possession thereof contnuiously, openly,
peacefully and publicly from 1891 to 1949, when the Director of Lands
leased a portion of said lot, on its southern part, to Adela de la
Cruz—an alleged dummy of a Chinese, Pedro Lee—and another portion to
Mariano Austria; that in 1951 the latter constructed on the portion
leased to him a two-story building of strong materials and a gasoline
station; and that the Director 6i Lands was about to act m the approval
of Austria’s lease application covering the entire Lot No. 986.
Plaintiffs in said Civil Case No. 13788 prayed, therefore, for a
decision declaring them owners of Lot No. 986, and ordering, inter
alia, the cancellation of the lease contracts in favor of “Adela de la
Cruz or Pedro Lee, and Mariano Austria”, the removal of their buildings
or improvements on said lot, the delivery of the possession thereof to
them (plaintiffs) and the appointment of a receiver.

In due course, the defendants filed their respective answers. Pedro
Lee disclaimed any and all interest in and to Lot No. 986, The other
defendants denied the main allegations of the plaintiffs with respect
to their alleged possession and title and that of their predecessors,
and alleged that said lot is a public land belonging to the State,
apart from pleading the statute of limitations, and setting up a
counterclaim. The Director of Lands further alleged the pendency of
another action, between the same parties and for the same cause, and
that Austria’s sales application had been approved after appropriate
proceedings without any opposition on the part of the plaintiffs.

On motion of the plaintiffs in said Civil Case No. 13788, the
hearing thereof and that of Cadastral Case No. 60, as regards Lot No.
986, was held jointly. However, before the completion of the evidence
for said plaintiffs, the Municipality of San Carlos, Pangasinan,
hereinafter referred to as the petitioner, filed a motion for
intervention and admission of a complaint in intervention attached
thereto. The motion having been denied, petitioner filed a motion for
reconsideration and to lift the order of general default in Cadastral
Case No. 60, and for the admission of an amended complaint in
intervention attached to said motion, with the same unfavorable result.
Hence, the present action for mandamus.

Such action is devoid of merit, Petitioner’s alleged right to
intervene is predicated—according to the complaint in intervention
attached to its motion to intervene—upon the theory that Lot No. 986 is
“part and parcel of the public plaza” of the Municipality of San
Carlos, and that the latter is, as an alleged consequence thereof, its
“true and legal owner”. But, this conclusion does not follow from the
premise that said lot is part of the public plaza. As correctly
adverted to in the order of the lower court denying said motion, the
petitioner does not claim that Lot No. 986 had been granted thereto by
either the Spanish Government or that of the Philippines. As alleged
part of a public plaza, said lot is, at best, a public land belonging
to, and, subject to the administration and control of, the Republic of
the Philippines, and petitioner has no right to claim it as its
patrimonial property. Whatever right of administration petitioner may
have exercised over said plaza prior to 1949 was, not proprietary, but
governmental in nature. It did not exclude the national government. On
the contrary, it was possessed on behalf and in representation thereof,
the municipal government of San Carlos being, in the performance of its
political functions, a mere agency of the Republic, acting for its
benefit. This was, in effect, admitted by petitioner for, in the
amended complaint in intervention attached to its motion for
reconsideration, it no longer alleged ownership over Lot No. 986. It is
thus clear, that petitioner has no property right or any right in rem in
and to said lot and that the lower court, had, therefore, no duty to
allow petitioner’s intervention, particularly considering that the
Director of Lands, who represents the interest of the national
government in said lot, is a party in Cadastral Case No. 60 and in
Civil Case No. 13788.

Wherefore, the petition herein is hereby dismissed, and the writ of
preliminary injunction issued by this Court dissolved, with costs
against the petitioner. It is so ordered.

Bengzon, C. J., Padilla, Labrador, Barrera, Paredes, Dizon, Regala and Makalintal, JJ., concur.