Candelario S. Dela Cruz v. Alejandro Dumasig

Summary

The Supreme Court resolved a property dispute among siblings over agricultural land inherited from their deceased parents. The parents had executed a deed of sale in favor of daughter Rosalinda in 2003, supposedly in exchange for her paying their bank loan. However, the parents continued possessing and cultivating the land until their deaths, even re-mortgaging it in 2004. Rosalinda later mortgaged the property to Dumasig in 2011. The other siblings filed an accion reivindicatoria claiming ownership rights. The Supreme Court found the sale absolutely simulated due to lack of genuine intent and consideration, and void for violating Presidential Decree No. 27's prohibition on transfer of emancipation patent lands except through hereditary succession. The Court declared all siblings as co-owners and invalidated the subsequent mortgage to Dumasig, reinstating the trial court's decision ordering partition and Dumasig's vacation of the property.