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Part 4
MACTAN-CEBU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY,
Petitioner
versus
SPOUSES EDITO and MERIANTIROL and SPOUSES ALEJANDRO and MIRANDA NGO,
Respondents.
Petitioner, however, is of the impression that registration under Act No. 3344 is permissible because the duplicate copy of the certificate of title covering Lot No. 4763-D had been lost or destroyed. This argument does not persuade. Our pronouncement in Amodia Vda. de Melencion, et al. v. Court of Appeals, et al. is apropos:
In the case at bench, it is uncontroverted that the subject property was under the operation of the Torrens System even before the respective conveyances to AZNAR and Go Kim Chuan were made. AZNAR knew of this, and admits this as fact. Yet, despite this knowledge, AZNAR registered the sale in its favor under Act 3344 on the contention that at the time of sale, there was no title on file. We are not persuaded by such a lame excuse.
x x x
In this case, since the Extra-Judicial Partition of Real Estate with Deed of Absolute Sale in favor of AZNAR was registered under Act No. 3344 and not under Act No. 496, the said document is deemed not registered. Rather, it was the sale in favor of Go Kim Chuan which was registered under Act No. 496.
AZNAR insists that since there was no Torrens title on file in 1964, insofar as the vendors, AZNAR, and the Register of Deeds are concerned, the subject property was unregistered at the time. The contention is untenable. The fact that the certificate of title over the registered land is lost does not convert it into unregistered land. After all, a certificate of title is merely an evidence of ownership or title over the particular property described therein. This Court agrees with the petitioners that AZNAR should have availed itself of the legal remedy of reconstitution of the lost certificate of title, instead of registration under Act 3344. We note that in Aznar Brothers Realty Company v. Aying, AZNAR, beset with the similar problem of a lost certificate of title over a registered land, sought the reconstitution thereof. It is unfortunate that, in the instant case, despite the sale of the subject property way back in 1964 and the existence of the remedy of reconstitution at that time, AZNAR opted to register the same under the improper registry (Act 3344) and allowed such status to lie undisturbed. (italics supplied)
(To be continued)
