AYOG VS CUSI

LAUSAN AYOG, ET.AL., vs. JUDGE VICENTE N. CUSI

G.R. No. L-46729
November 19, 1982
FACTS:
On January 21, 1953, the Director of Lands, after bidding, awarded to Bian
Development Co., Inc. a parcel of land with an area of about two hundred fifty hectares.
The occupants of said land, herein petitioners, were ordered to vacate the same. Upon
the refusal of the occupants of the said, the corporation filed an ejectment suit. After an
investigation, the Director of Lands found out that the occupants entered the land only
after it was awarded to the corporation. Thus, they could not be regarded as bona fide
occupants. On July 18, 1961, the corporation fully paid the purchase price for the land.
More than thirteen years later, the Sales Patent was issued to the corporation with a
reduced area of 175.3 hectares.
The petitioners contested that the adoption of the Constitution which took effect
on January 17, 1973, was a supervening fact which render it legally impossible to
execute the trial courts judgment of awarding the land in question to the corporation.
They invoked the constitutional prohibition, already mentioned, that "no private
corporation or association may hold alienable lands of the public domain except by
lease not to exceed one thousand hectares in area."
The Director of Lands pointed out that the corporation had complied with the said
requirements long before the effectivity of the Constitution and that the applicant had
acquired a vested right to its issuance.
ISSUE:
Whether the 1973 Constitution is an obstacle to the implementation of the trial
courts 1964 judgment ejecting the petitioners.
RULING:
NO; The Constitutional prohibition has no retroactive application to the sales
application of Binan Development Co., Inc. because it had already acquired a vested
right to the land applied at the time the 1973 Constitution took effect. Moreover, the
corporations compliance with the requirements of the Public Land Law for the issuance
of a patent had the effect of segregating the said land from the public domain.