Property

(99) Heirs of Emiliano Navarro v. Intermediate Appellate Court and

Heirs of Sinforoso Pascual
G.R. No. 68166 February 12, 1997

Lands added to the shores by accretions and alluvial deposits caused by the action of the sea, form part
of the public domain

FACTS. Sinforoso Pascual filed an application for foreshore lease covering a tract of foreshore
land in Sibocon, Balanga, Bataan, having an area of approximately seventeen (17) hectares. This
application, however, was denied.

Subsequently, Emiliano Navarro, filed a fishpond application with the Bureau of Fisheries
covering twenty five (25) hectares of foreshore land also in Sibocon, Balanga, Bataan. The Bureau of
Fisheries gave due course to his application but only to the extent of seven (7) hectares of the
property as may be certified by the Bureau of Forestry as suitable for fishpond purposes.

Sometime in the early part of 1960, Sinforoso Pascual filed an application to register and
confirm his title to a parcel of land, situated in Sibocon, Balanga, Bataan, described in Plan Psu-
175181 and said to have an area of 146,611 square meters. Pascual claimed that this land is an
accretion to his property, situated in Barrio Puerto Rivas, Balanga, Bataan, and covered by Original
Certificate of Title No. 6830. It is bounded on the eastern side by the Talisay River, on the western
side by the Bulacan River, and on the northern side by the Manila Bay. The Talisay River as well as
the Bulacan River flow downstream and meet at the Manila Bay thereby depositing sand and silt on
Pascual's property resulting in an accretion thereon.

The Director of Lands, represented by the Assistant Solicitor General, filed an opposition
thereto stating that neither Pascual nor his predecessors-in-interest possessed sufficient title to the
subject property, the same being a portion of the public domain and, therefore, it belongs to the
Republic of the Philippines.

The Regional Trial Court rendered judgment finding the subject property to be foreshore land
and, being a part of the public domain, it cannot be the subject of land registration proceedings. On
appeal, the respondent court reversed the findings of the RTC.

ID., ARGUMENT OF THE PETITIONERS. Navarro claimed that the land sought to be
registered has always been part of the public domain, it being a part of the foreshore of Manila Bay;
that he was a lessee and in possession of a part of the subject property by virtue of a fishpond permit
issued by the Bureau of Fisheries and confirmed by the Office of the President; and that he had
already converted the area covered by the lease into a fishpond.

ID., ARGUMENT OF THE RESPONDENTS. Pascual claimed that the land was formed through
accretion. He claimed the accretion as the riparian owner.

ISSUE. Will the accretion taking place on property adjacent to the sea be registered in favor
of the petitioner?

RULING. No. Under Article 457 of the Civil Code, accretion, as a mode of acquiring property,
requires the concurrence of the following requisites: (1) that the accumulation of soil or sediment be

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gradual and imperceptible; (2) that it be the result of the action of the waters of the river; and (3)
that the land where the accretion takes place is adjacent to the bank of the river. In the case at bar,
the land claimed by Pascual and his Heirs is not adjacent to the rivers of Talisay and Bulacan. The
accretion formed at said portion of appellants' titled land was not caused by the current of the two
rivers but by the action of the Manila Bay into which the rivers empty. The law is clear on this.
Accretion of land along the river bank may be registered while the accretion of land along the sea
always belongs to the State and cannot be a subject of private acquisition. Moreover, Accretion on a
sea bank is foreshore land and the applicable law is not Article 457 of the Civil Code but Article 4 of
the Spanish Law of Waters of 1866 which states that lands added to the shores by accretions and
alluvial deposits caused by the action of the sea, form part of the public domain.

Petition for Review is hereby DENIED and DISMISSED.

Padilla, Bellosillo and Kapunan, JJ., concur.

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