Home 
MACTAN-CEBU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY,
Petitioner
versus
SPOUSES EDITO and MERIANTIROL and SPOUSES ALEJANDRO and MIRANDA NGO,
Respondents.
Additionally, in his Certification dated March 19, 1959, Julian Cuison stated that “the duplicate copy of the certificate of title for [Lot No. 4763] was lost or destroyed during the last war without having been received by [him] or [his] predecessor-in-interest.”
In this regard, well-settled is the rule that registration of instruments must be done in the proper registry in order to effect and bind the land. Prior to the Property Registration Decree of 1978, Act No. 496 (or the Land Registration Act) governed the recording of transactions involving registered land, i.e., land with a Torrens title. On the other hand, Act No. 3344, as amended, provided for the system of recording of transactions over unregistered real estate without prejudice to a third party with a better right. Accordingly, if a parcel of land covered by a Torrens title is sold, but the sale is registered under Act No. 3344 and not under the Land Registration Act, the sale is not considered registered and the registration of the deed does not operate as constructive notice to the whole world.
Consequently, the fact that petitioner MCIAA was able to register its Deed of Absolute Sale under Act No. 3344 is of no moment, as the property subject of the sale is indisputably registered land. Section 50 of Act No. 496 in fact categorically states that it is the act of registration that shall operate to convey and affect the land; absent any such registration, the instrument executed by the parties remains only as a contract between them and as evidence of authority to the clerk or register of deeds to make registration, viz.:
SECTION 50. An owner of registered land may convey, mortgage, lease, charge, or otherwise deal with the same as fully as if it had not been registered. He may use forms of deeds, mortgages, leases, or other voluntary instruments like those now in use and sufficient in law for the purpose intended. But no deed, mortgage, lease, or other voluntary instrument, except a will, purporting to convey or affect registered land, shall take effect as a conveyance or bind the land, but shall operate only as a contract between the parties and as evidence of authority to the clerk or register of deeds to make registration. The act of registration shall be the operative act to convey and affect the land, and in all cases under this Act the registration shall be made in the office of register of deeds for the province or provinces or city where the land lies. (italics supplied)
Hence, respondents may not be characterized as buyers in bad faith for having bought the property notwithstanding the registration of the first Deed of Absolute Sale under Act No. 3344. An improper registration is no registration at all. Likewise, a sale that is not correctly registered is binding only between the seller and the buyer, but it does not affect innocent third persons.
(To be continued)
