Source: http://lawlibrary.chanrobles.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=49784:gr-153914-2007&amp;catid=1494&amp;Itemid=566
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 00:41:15+00:00

Document:
G.R. No. 153914 - Felipe Regis Jr. v. the Hon. Court of Appeals, et al.
FELIPE REGIS, JR., Petitioner, v. THE HON. COURT OF APPEALS and AGAPITO GARCIA, Respondents.
This is a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court assailing the Decision1 of the Court of Appeals, dated September 13, 2001, and the Resolution2 dated February 15, 2002 in CA-G.R. SP No. 57003.
The present petition stems from two separate ejectment cases involving the same parties, albeit at different times, in two different branches of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) of Iligan City.
[T]he Court, finds that the defendant [Garcia] is a possessor and owner in fee simple of a residential lot along the former shorelines of Cabili Avenue, Iligan City. That [the] defendant [Garcia] possessed a parcel of land of about 200 square meters since 1947 (sic). x x x Sometime in 1973, the government[,] upon seeing the area to have been developed and reclaimed from the sea, it surveyed the area and opened it for disposition and alienation under the Miscellaneous Sales System. Defendant [Garcia] filed his Miscellaneous Sales Application for the entire 200 sq. meters he reclaimed [which] was eventually awarded to him. That sometime in the year 1970[,] a certain Delvo had filed an adverse claim over the same property in issue but, the Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the defendant [Garcia] herein over said parcel wherein the claim of herein plaintiff [Regis] is part.
Further, defendant's [Garcia] possession of this land in issue started before 1950 while the plaintiff enter[ed] the scene later, having purchased the rights of the defendant's [Garcia] father over the portion, defendant's [Garcia] father [had] occupied and claimed [as his] own.
Finally, the Court, opined that the issue here could be settled by determining the true boundaries of each lot claimed by party-litigants. But, even if this Court would do so yet, the action of this Court, would [be] an effort in futility[,] the matter of ownership on the entire portion of land claimed by defendant [Garcia] having been passed over (sic) by the Regional Trial Court and lately was awarded by the government to defendant [Garcia] under Miscellaneous Sales Application.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Court hereby opine[s] that plaintiff [Regis] had failed to prove any cause of action against defendant [Garcia], hence, the Court hereby order[s] the Dismissal of the case for [having] no cause of action.
No appeal was taken from this decision.
The second case, entitled "Agapito Garcia v. Felipe Regis, Junior and the Members of His Family," docketed as Civil Case No. 1-429 in the MTCC, Branch 01, Iligan City, was for ejectment, filed by Agapito Garcia (Garcia), respondent herein. In its Decision4 dated February 11, 1999, the MTCC dismissed the complaint for failure of Garcia to prove his prior physical possession of the property in question. The lower court went on to say that the evidence presented by Garcia proved only his right of possession, not his prior physical possession of the contested property which is the core issue in forcible entry cases.
On the findings of the lower court, it would appear that the herein plaintiff-appellant [Garcia] took possession, ahead of anybody else, including the defendant-appellee [Regis] of the 200 square meters, wherein the disputed area of 40 square meters is merely a portion.
Even granting arguendo that the appellee [Regis] was in possession of the property before the alleged forcible entry was filed in 1989, the appellant [Garcia] was already there long before the intrusion of the 40 square meters which is a portion of the whole 200 square meters, earlier applied for by the appellant [Garcia].
In the case at bar, and in addition to the findings of the lower court in Civil Case No. II-236, appellant [Garcia] took possession of the property in 1946 (Exhibit "A") and introduced improvements thereon. To strengthen his hold on the property he filed a Sales Application (Exhibit "D") in 1973 and declared it for taxation purposes (Exhibit "C") in 1973.
On the other hand, the documentary evidence shown by the appellee [Regis], i.e., Declaration of Real Property (Exhibits "3-B" and "3-C") were secured only very recently or in October 1993 and June 1986[,] respectively. The two (2) tax receipts were issued only on January 7, 1998.
Evidently the appellant [Garcia] has indeed occupied the property way ahead of the parents of the appellee [Regis] and much earlier than the appellee [Regis] himself.
In sum, the Court believes that plaintiff-appellant [Garcia] is the rightful possessor of the lot in dispute and that defendant-appellee [Regis] being an intruder and deforciant should be ordered to restore the lot to the plaintiff-appellant [Garcia].
WHEREFORE, the Decision of the Regional Trial Court of Iligan City, Branch 3 in Civil Case No. 4607, reversing the judgment in Civil Case No 1-236 (sic) rendered by the Municipal Trial Court in Cities, Branch 1, Iligan City, and ordering the petitioner [Regis] to remove the structures and to vacate the property in dispute is hereby AFFIRMED in toto.
A motion for reconsideration was filed by Regis but the same was denied by the CA in a Resolution7 dated February 15, 2002.
At the outset, we reiterate that the special civil action for certiorari cannot be availed of even if it is based upon lack of jurisdiction or grave abuse of discretion when the remedy of appeal is available.10 Certiorari is proper only if there is no appeal, or when there is no plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.11 Regis cannot invoke the extraordinary writ of certiorari as a substitute for the lost remedy of appeal.
A cursory reading of the CA Decision would reveal that it did not decide the forcible entry case as accion publiciana. The CA only commented on the observation of the RTC that it would have been better if Garcia filed an accion publiciana instead of a complaint for forcible entry. This is a legitimate comment of the appellate court on the discussion in the RTC decision.
In an action for forcible entry, whether or not the person occupying the property has the right to occupy the same is not important. What is essential is that the party filing the case be able to prove that his peaceful physical possession of the property was arbitrarily intruded by another. The rationale for this remedy is that a person who is in peaceful possession of property must not be ejected therefrom by force, intimidation, threat, strategy, or stealth. A person who believes that he has a right of possession over a certain property that is in the hands of another must not take the law into his own hands. He cannot just barge in and take the property that is actually occupied by another.
The better right to possession, as distinguished from the right to physical possession, is litigated in this plenary action16 as an ordinary civil proceeding in the RTC.
Recovery of ownership, which includes the right to possession over real property, can be commenced through an accion reivindicatoria. The action is filed in the RTC.
In the instant case, the CA acted within its jurisdiction in issuing the assailed judgment. To repeat, the CA did not treat the forcible entry case as an accion publiciana. What was litigated before the appellate court was the very same case for forcible entry initiated at the MTCC. Not being a new case, petitioner cannot claim that he was deprived of due process or denied his day in court. Furthermore, Regis, after appealing his case to the CA and having taken part in the proceedings therein, is estopped from assailing the jurisdiction of such tribunal after receiving an unfavorable judgment.
The Court takes judicial notice of the Decision of MTCC, Branch II, Iligan City, dated March 13, 1989. This decision of the MTCC was never appealed and thus, became final and conclusive as to the parties therein. The family, relatives, and other privies of the parties in ejectment cases are as much bound by the judgment as the party from whom they derive their possession.19 In this case, Regis is barred by res judicata from questioning the MTCC finding that Garcia had prior possession. Thus, the following findings of fact of the MTCC in Civil Case No. II-236, the RTC in Civil Case No. 4607, and of the CA in CA-G.R. SP No. 57003, are deemed conclusive: a) Garcia was already the owner of the 200-square-meter lot when his Miscellaneous Sales Application was favorably granted; b) The 40-square-meter lot that is contested in this case is embraced within the said 200-square-meter lot owned by Garcia; and c) Garcia's possession of the contested property dates back to 1946, while the possession of Regis goes back only to 1962.
WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing, the Decision of the Court of Appeals, dated September 13, 2001, and the Resolution dated February 15, 2002, in CA-G.R. SP No. 57003, are hereby AFFIRMED. Costs against the petitioner.
1 Penned by Associate Justice Bernardo P. Abesamis, with Associate Justices Godardo A. Jacinto and Eliezer R. De Los Santos, concurring; rollo, pp. 25-34.
3 Penned by Judge Ayonan M. Aguam; id. at 208-209.
4 Penned by Judge Albert B. Abragan; id. at 210 - 214.
5 Penned by Acting Presiding Judge Moslemen T. Macarambon, entitled "Agapito Garcia v. Felipe Regis Junior and the Members of His Family," id. at 215-219.
10 Madrigal Transport, Inc. v. Lapanday Holdings Corporation, G.R. No. 156067, August 11, 2004, 436 SCRA 123, 127.
11 RULES OF COURT, Rule 65, Section 1.
13 Bishop of Cebu v. Mangaron, 6 Phil. 286, 290-291 (1906).
14 RULES OF COURT, Rule 70, Section 16.
15 RULES OF COURT, Rule 70, Section 18.
17 Bishop of Cebu v. Mangaron, supra note 13, at 290-291.
18 Hko Ah Pao v. Ting, G.R. No. 153476, September 27, 2006, 503 SCRA 551, 562.
19 Ariem v. Hon. de los Angeles, etc., et al., 151 Phil. 440, 445 (1973).

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