WHEREAS, last year, a number of employees of tile Office of
the President of the Philippines, as well as the personnel of the Presidential
Guard Battalion, including their respective families, had been ordered to
forthwith vacate Malacañang Park;
WHEREAS, these families, who subsequently organized
themselves and formed the Malacañang Homeowners Association, Inc., transferred
their humble dwellings, in October 1972, to the vicinity of the Tala Estate,
believing that the land therein forms part of the property of the Republic of
the Philippines, available for disposition and sale to them;
WHEREAS, the said land is, however, being claimed by the
Carmel Farms, Inc., on the basis of alleged Sale Certificates and/or Transfer
Certificates of Title issued in its favor, but which certificates were recently
discovered to have been illegally issued, contrary to the pertinent provisions
of Act 1120, as amended, otherwise known as the Friar Lands Act, because of
non-payment of consideration and encroachment upon property of the Republic of
the Philippines;
WHEREAS, said land was formerly part of the Tala Estate, the
disposition of which is subject to the provisions of said Act;
WHEREAS, under Section 15 of said Act, title to each and
every parcel of land sold under it is reserved to the Government, until the full
payment of all installments of purchase money and interest by the purchaser has
been made, any sale or incumbrance made by him being invalid as against the
Government;
WHEREAS, according to the records of the Bureau of Lands,
neither the original purchasers nor their subsequent transferees have made full
payment of all installments of the purchase money and interest on the lots
claimed by the Carmel Farms, Inc., including those on which the dwellings of the
members of said Association stand. Hence, title to said land has remained with
the Government, and the land now occupied by the members of said association has
never ceased to form part of the property of the Republic of the Philippines,
any and all acts affecting said land and purporting to segregate it from the
said property of the Republic of the Philippines being therefore null and void
ab initio as against the law and public policy; and
WHEREAS, it has been the firm policy of the Government of
this New Society, as it was that also of the Old, to provide opportunity for the
landless and homeless to acquire even only residential lots;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the
Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution as
Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to
Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated
September 22, 1972, do hereby order and decree that any and all sales contracts
between the Government and the original purchasers, are hereby cancelled, and
those between the latter and the subsequent transferees, and any and all
transfers thereafter, covering lots 979, 981, 982, 985, 988, 989, 990, 991-NEW,
1226, 1228, 1230, and 980-C-2 (LRC PSD-1730), all of Tala Estate, Caloocan City,
are hereby declared invalid and null and void ab initio as against the
Government; that Transfer Certificates of Title Nos. 62603, 62604, 62605,
covering lots 1, 2, and 3, PCS-4383, all in the name of Carmel Farms, Inc.,
which are a consolidation and subdivision survey of the lots hereinbefore
enumerated, are declared invalid and considered cancelled as against the
Government; and that said lots are declared open for disposition and sale to the
members of the Malacañang Homeowners Association, Inc., the present bona fide
occupants thereof, pursuant to Commonwealth Act No. 32, as amended.
This Decree is hereby made a part of the law of the land and shall take
effect immediately.
Done in the City of Manila, this 14th day of September, in the year of Our
Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-three.
(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President
Republic of the Philippines
By the President:
(Sgd.) ALEJANDRO MELCHOR
Assistant Executive Secretary