Preamble
WHEREAS, under the provisions of Section 45, Chapter VII and Section 47, Chapter VII, Commonwealth Act No. 141, as amended, otherwise known as the Public Land Act, the period fixed in the entire Archipelago for filing applications for free patent and judicial confirmation of imperfect and incomplete title to alienable and disposable lands of the public domain will expire on December 31, 1976; WHEREAS, there is still a substantial number of Filipino citizens and member of the National Cultural Communities who are entitled to the benefits of the aforementioned law but have not been able to take advantage of the period for filing their application because the lands occupied and settled by them have not been surveyed or they are located in municipalities that have not been reached by the cadastral survey program of the government; and WHEREAS, it has always been the policy of the State to hasten the settlement, adjudication and quieting of titles to unregistered lands including alienable and disposable lands of the public domain in favor of qualified Filipino citizens who have acquired inchoate, imperfect and incomplete titles thereto by reason of their open, continuous, exclusive and notorious occupation and cultivation thereof under bona fide claim of acquisition of ownership for a number of years prescribed by law: NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby decree as part of the law of the land, the following: