MAGDALENA AGUILOR, ET AL., PLAINTIFFS AND APPELLANTS, VS. FLORENCIO BALATICO AND GREGORIO AGUILOR, DEFENDANTS AND APPELLEES.

Appeal by plaintiffs from a decision of the Court of First Instance of
Cagayan dismissing the complaint, without costs.

The case is before us, plaintiffs having stated in their notice of appeal
that they interposed the same to the Supreme Court because they would raise on
appeal “purely a question of law”. The right to assail the findings of fact in
the decision appealed from having been thereby waived by plaintiffs, we quote
the pertinent portions of said decision:

“Hilario Aguilor was the registered owner of a parcel, of land with an area
of 36,772 square meters located in the barrio of Calaoagan Bassit, Gattaran,
Cagayan. In his lifetime he married Fausta Unday with whom he begot a daughter
named Magdaleha Aguilor. After the death of Fausta Unday, Hilario lived with
Beatriz Asuncion but the evidence is not clear whether he married Beatriz.
Beatriz Asuncion had a child with another man named Inocencio Melchor. Inocencio
died in 1945 leaving the following children, Juan, Pantaleon, Avelina, Ventura,
Felisa, Leonora and Benigno, surnamed Ga. Claiming to be the heirs of the land
involved in this case, plaintiffs brought this action seeking to repurchase the
land in question alleging that it was only mortgaged by Hilario Aguilor to the
defendants. Plaintiffs tried also to show that the land was cleared while
Hilario Aguilor lived with his wife Fausta Unday although the portion cleared is
small. When Hilario took Beatriz and lived with her maritally, the biggest
portion of the land was cleared.

“Upon the other hand, defendants contend that on April 20, 1949, the land was
sold by Hilario Aguilor to them for P1,000 (Exhibit 1). Out of the consideration
of P1,000.00, the sum of P500.00 was paid to Juan Ga and Pantaleon Ga who,
according to the defendant Florencio Balatico, were authorized by their co-heirs
to receive said sum from Hilario Aguilor. Subsequent to the sale the defendants
possessed the land and declared it in their names (Exhibit 3) and paid the
corresponding taxes of the land from 1950 to 1958 (Exhibit 5). Defendants also
claim that the plaintiffs have knowledge of the previous sale such that they
have instituted before another case against the defendants wherein it Is alleged
in the complaint that the property was sold by Hilario Aguilor but the complaint
was dismissed by this Court without prejudice (Exhibit 4).

“In rebuttal, the plaintiffs tried to show that Domingo Aguilor did not
thumbmark Exhibit 1, which is the deed of sale that was executed by Hilario
Aguilor in favor of the defendants. To support their claim, they presented a
written statement (Exhibit B) which has been identified by Juan Ga who said that
the thumbmark appearing in the statement is the genuine thumbmark of Domingo
Aguilor. Furthermore, Juan Ga denied the claim of the defendants that he
received the sum of P500.00 jointly with Pantaleon Ga from the defendant
Florencio Balatico.

“To counteract the contention of plaintiffs that Domingo Aguilor did not
thumbmark Exhibit 1, the defendants have put on the witness stand Atty. Joaquin
R. Andres who testified that he was one who prepared and notarized Exhibit 1;
that at the time Exhibit 1 was prepared Domingo Aguilor was present; that
Hilario Aguilor and Domingo Aguilor thumbmarked Exhibit 1 in his presence; that
when Hilario Aguilor and Domingo Aguilor thumbmarked Exhibit 1, they used two
different fountain pens; that Domingo Agullor told Atty. Andres that he was
misled by Juan Ga when he was asked to sign Exhibit B; and that he advised
Domingo Agullor to make a denial or explain the circumstances surrounding the
execution of Exhibit B before a Notary Public or any other authority.

“On the basis of the foregoing facts, there are two issues that the court is
called upon to pass, to wit: (1) whether Hilario Aguilor sold or mortgaged the
land to the defendants; and (2) whether Hilario Aguilor was the sole and
exclusive owner of the land at the time he sold it.

“On the issue as to whether Hilario Agullor only mortgaged the property, no
evidence has been presented by the plaintiffs to prove their claim. Considering
that Exhibit 1 is a public document, the presumption is that it has been
executed in accordance with the terms and stipulations agreed upon by the
parties. Furthermore, on January 5, 1951, the plaintiffs with the exception of
Magdalena Aguilor, filed a complaint before this Court seeking to recover the
property and to annul a deed of sale on the same property that was executed by
Hilario Aguilor in favor of the defendants (Exhibit 4). In paragraph 7 of the
complaint, the plaintiffs said that the property was sold to the defendants.
Their contention now that Hilario Aguilor only mortgaged the property
contradicts,their claim when they filed the complaint in Civil Case No. 415-A
(Exhibit 4) such that it is hard to believe that the property was only mortgaged
by Hilario Aguilor to the defendants.

“The plaintiffs further argue that, assuming that the property was really
sold by Hilario Aguilor to the defendants, still Hilario Aguilor cannot sell the
entire property as it belongs to the conjugal partnership of Hilario Aguilor and
his wife Fausta Unday and that the property was totally cleared while Hilario
Aguilor lived maritally with Beatriz Asuncion. But the documentary evidence
presented by the plaintiffs (Exhibit A) shows that at the time the title was
issued, Hilario Aguilor was a widower such that the property belonged
exclusively to him.

‘Occupation and cultivation of a public land gives rise to a right to apply
for a free patent. But in order that that right may ripen into a free patent
title, it is necessary, among other things that an application be actually
filed. In the case at bar, the occupation and cultivation of the land in
question began during the first marriage of the entryman but title thereto was
applied for and granted during his second marriage. The land should belong to
the second conjugal partnership.’ (Naval et al. vs. Jonsay, et al., 95
Phil., 939; 50 Off. Gaz., 4792.)

Being the absolute owner of the property,
Hilario Aguilor can sell it without the necessity of securing the conformity of
the herein plaintiffs.”

The main contention of plaintiffs is that “the lower court erred in declaring
that the land subject of the action belong exclusively to Hilario Aguilor and
being the absolute owner of the property, Hilario Aguilor can sell it without
the necessity of securing the conformity of the herein plaintiffs”.

The question whether the property in dispute belongs exclusively to Hilario
Aguilor or not is one of fact and, hence, the finding of the lower court thereon
cannot be questioned by plaintiffs herein. At any rate, it appears that said
property originally formed part of a homestead in the name of Juan Aguilor, in
whose favor Homestead Patent No. 6126 and Original Certificate of Title No. 133
were issued on May 5 and June 16, 1924, respectively. Fifteen (15) years latter,
said homestead was subdivided in Cadastral Case No. 43, G.L.R.O. Cadastral
Record No. 1910, into seven (7) lots, one of which is the property in dispute
herein. On September 30, 1939, the Court of First Instance of Cagayan issued, in
said cadastral proceeding, an order directing the cancellation of said Original
Certificate of Title No. 133 and the issuance, for each one of the
aforementioned lots, of a transfer certificate of title in favor of specified
persons, one of whom was Hilario Aguilor, from whom plaintiffs herein claim to
derive their title. In pursuance of said order, whieh referred to Hilario
Aguilor as a widower, Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-565, was issued in his
name, as such widower, on January 19, 1949. Soon thereafter, or on April 25,
1949, Hilario Aguilor executed, in favor of defendants Florencio Balatico and
Gregorio Aguilor, the questioned deed of sale Exhibit 1, which, was filed with
the office of the Register of Deeds of Cagayan on February 24, 1950. Transfer
Certificate of Title No. T-565 was then cancelled, and, in lieu thereof,
Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-803, in the name of said defendants, was
issued.

It is clear from the foregoing that the property in dispute could not have
belonged to the conjugal partnership of Hilario Aguilor and his wife, Fausta
Unday, for the latter died, according to plaintiffs’ complaint, in 1918. Said
conjugal partnership was, therefore, dissolved six (6) years before the issuance
of Homestead Patent No. 6126 and Original Certificate of Title No. 133 in the
name of Juan Aguilor, twenty-one (21) years before the Court of First Instance
of Cagayan had ordered the cancellation of said Original Certificate of Title
No. 133, and the issuance, in lieu thereof, of, inter alia, a transfer
certificate of title in favor of Hilario Aguilor, covering one of the seven (7)
lots into which the homestead of Juan Aguilor had been subdivided, which lot is
the one involved in this case, and forty-one (41) years before the issuance of
said transfer certificate of title in the name of Hilario Aguilor.

It is, likewise, apparent that, although Hilario Aguilor and Beatriz Asuncion
had, after the death of Fausta Unday, lived together as husband and wife, they
did so without the benefit of marriage, for, otherwise, neither the
aforementioned order of the Court of First Instance of Cagayan of September 30,
1939, nor the deed, Exhibit 1, executed by Hilario Aguilor on April 25, 1949,
would have described him as a widower. Again, considering that Juan Aguilor’s
homestead patent and certificate of title were issued in 1924, that the land in
question must have been cleared, therefore, before that year, and that Hilario
Aguilor did not acquire an interest thereon until 1939, when the Cadastral Court
ordered the issuance of a transfer certificate of title in his favor, after the
cancellation of the original certificate of title of Juan Aguilor, plaintiffs’
evidence to the effect that Hilario Aguilor had began clearing a small portion
of said land before the death of Fausta Unday in 1918, and that he thereafter
cleared the rest and major portion of the land when Beatriz Asuncion and he were
living maritally, cannot possibly be true. In short, neither Beatriz Asuncion,
nor her daughter by another man, Inocencia Melchor, nor the latter’s children,
plaintiffs Juan, Pantaleon, Ventura, Felisa and Leonora Ga, may claim an
interest in said property.

It is next urged, that, under the Public Land Act, the sale to appellees
herein is null and void, it having been effected three months after the issuance
of the title in favor of Hilario Aguilor. The provision alluded to is evidently
section 118 of said Act, which prohibits the encumbrance or alienation of lands
acquired under free patent or homestead “from the date of the approval of the
application and for a term of five (5) years from and after the date of issuance
of the patent”. The patent to the land in question was issued, however, on May
5, 1924, or over twenty-five (25) years before the sale to defendants herein,
which is, therefore, beyond the range of said prohibition.

Wherefore, the decision appealed from is hereby affirmed, with costs against
plaintiffs-appellants. It is so ordered.

Bengzon, C.J., Padilla, Bautista
Angelo, Labrador, Reyes, J.B.L., Paredes, Dizon, De Leon, and
Natividad, JJ., concur.