According to Ownership

Classification According to Ownership

Property may be classified according to ownership by identifying whether it is held as property of public dominion, patrimonial property, or property of private ownership. The classification is not based merely on who physically possesses the thing. It depends on the legal character of the owner’s title, the public or private purpose to which the thing is devoted, and whether the thing is within the commerce of man.

The Civil Code treats the classification in a connected sequence: property is either of public dominion or of private ownership; State property not devoted to public dominion is patrimonial; property of local governments is either for public use or patrimonial; and patrimonial property of the State or of its political subdivisions is included in property of private ownership for civil law purposes.

This classification is especially important in land titles and deeds because only property that is alienable and within commerce may be privately acquired, registered, levied upon, or lost by prescription. A document, tax declaration, possession, or even a mistaken administrative act cannot convert property outside commerce into private property without the required legal authority.

General Classes

Property of Public Dominion

Property of public dominion is property devoted to a public purpose of such character that it is withdrawn from private commerce. It includes property intended for public use, such as roads, streets, bridges, rivers, ports, shores, and similar things open to the community, and property which belongs to the State and is intended for public service or for the development of national wealth.

The words public dominion describe the public character of the property, not ordinary private ownership by the government. The State’s relation to such property is impressed with sovereignty, public trust, and administrative control. The government may regulate, protect, improve, and manage the property, but it may not dispose of it as a private owner unless the property has first been lawfully removed from public dominion.

Public use property is for direct use by the public. Roads, streets, plazas, promenades, public waters, shores, and ports are typical examples because the community uses them as such. The decisive feature is legal dedication to public use, not profitability, bookkeeping treatment, or the identity of the office maintaining the property.

Property for public service is not necessarily used directly by every member of the public. It is devoted to governmental operations or facilities needed to perform a public function. Public buildings, facilities, or works may fall in this class when the governing law, dedication, and actual public function show that the property is being held for public service rather than proprietary administration.

Property intended for the development of national wealth refers to resources and lands which the legal order keeps under State control because of their public and economic importance. The constitutional Regalian doctrine supplies the land-law backdrop: lands of the public domain and natural resources belong to the State, and only agricultural lands classified as alienable and disposable may be the subject of private acquisition under the conditions set by law.

Because public dominion property is outside commerce, possession of it, however long, does not ripen into ownership. Prescription does not run against it. It cannot be registered under the Torrens system in the name of a private person while it retains that character. It is also not subject to attachment, execution, or sale to satisfy private claims, because public property needed for public use or public service cannot be diverted by ordinary civil processes.

A Torrens title issued over property that remains inalienable public dominion property does not validate the title. Registration confirms title; it does not create ownership over property that the registrant could not lawfully acquire. The indefeasibility of a certificate of title does not operate against the State when the subject land is legally incapable of private ownership.

Patrimonial Property

Patrimonial property is property owned by the State or by a political subdivision in its private or proprietary capacity. It is government property, but it is not devoted to public use, public service, or development of national wealth. The government, in relation to patrimonial property, acts more like a private owner, subject to constitutional, statutory, and administrative limitations on disposition.

State property becomes patrimonial when it does not belong to public dominion, or when property formerly of public dominion is no longer intended for public use, public service, or development of national wealth and the required legal act of withdrawal or conversion has occurred. Mere non-use, abandonment in fact, or private occupation does not by itself change the legal classification. The change must proceed from competent authority because the public character of the property is created and removed by law.

For land of the public domain, classification as alienable and disposable is indispensable to private acquisition, but it must be understood with care. Agricultural land must first be released from the inalienable mass of public domain; for acquisitive prescription against the State, the land must also have become patrimonial in character. Possession that begins while the land is forest, mineral, foreshore, civil reservation, national park, or otherwise inalienable cannot be counted as possession in the concept of owner against the State.

Patrimonial property is within commerce. It may be sold, leased, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of when the applicable law authorizes the transaction and the required governmental approvals are present. It may be the object of contracts, succession, registration, and prescription, subject to public bidding, audit, local government, public land, and other special rules when applicable.

For local governments, property not devoted to public use is patrimonial. A city, municipality, province, or barangay may own markets, lots, buildings, equipment, or other assets in a proprietary capacity. Even then, public officers do not have unlimited dominion over them. The power to sell, lease, donate, or encumber local patrimonial property must be found in law and exercised through the proper local body, form, and procedure.

Property of Private Ownership

Property of private ownership includes property belonging to private persons, either individually or collectively, and patrimonial property belonging to the State or its political subdivisions. The category therefore has two branches: property privately owned by private persons, and government property treated as private because it is patrimonial.

Private ownership may be held by natural persons, corporations, partnerships, associations, co-owners, spouses, heirs, or other juridical entities allowed by law. The property may be real or personal, corporeal or incorporeal, present or future when law permits, provided it is susceptible of appropriation and is not excluded from commerce.

The owner of private property has the rights to enjoy, dispose, recover, exclude, and use the property within legal limits. These powers are not absolute. They are restricted by the Constitution, statutes, police power, taxation, eminent domain, zoning, nuisance rules, easements, servitudes, co-ownership rules, family property regimes, succession law, and contractual obligations.

Private property may be the object of possession in the concept of owner. It may be acquired by occupation when the law allows occupation, by intellectual creation, by donation, by succession, by tradition after a valid contract, and by prescription. It may also be registered if the claimant proves registrable title and the land is of a class capable of private ownership.

Patrimonial government property included in private ownership remains affected by public law limitations because the owner is still the State or a political subdivision. Its private character does not erase requirements on authority, appropriation, bidding, valuation, approval, or public accountability. The classification simply means that, as to the thing itself, the property is within commerce and may be the subject of private-law relations when lawfully dealt with.

Conversion Between Classes

The movement from public dominion to patrimonial property is a legal conversion, not merely a physical event. A road does not become patrimonial simply because traffic declines. A plaza does not become alienable merely because it is fenced by a private occupant. Shore land does not become private because improvements were built on it. The public character continues until competent authority removes the public use, public service, reservation, or public-resource classification in the manner required by law.

Once property is validly converted into patrimonial property, it becomes capable of disposition and, in proper cases, prescription. The conversion must be shown by law, proclamation, ordinance, administrative classification, or other legally sufficient act. The required act depends on the nature of the property and the level of government that owns or controls it.

The reverse movement may also occur. Private or patrimonial property may be devoted to public use or public service through purchase, expropriation, donation, dedication, reservation, or other lawful act. Once the public dedication takes effect, the property assumes the corresponding public character and is governed by rules protecting public use or public service.

Ownership by the State and Political Subdivisions

The State may hold property in two capacities. In its public or sovereign capacity, it holds property of public dominion for public use, public service, or national wealth. In its private or proprietary capacity, it holds patrimonial property that can enter commerce subject to law.

Political subdivisions likewise hold property in public and proprietary capacities. Local roads, streets, public squares, public fountains, public waters, promenades, and public works for public service paid for by the local government are public use property. Other assets possessed by local governments are patrimonial unless a special law, dedication, or public function gives them a public character.

The distinction affects remedies. Public dominion property cannot ordinarily be recovered or transferred through actions and transactions available for private property, because the public interest is the dominant consideration. Patrimonial property, by contrast, may be protected, recovered, leased, sold, or otherwise administered through ordinary civil remedies when the government acts within statutory authority.

Consequences of Classification

• Alienability. Public dominion property is inalienable while it retains that character. Patrimonial and privately owned property may be alienated if the owner has capacity and the governing law authorizes the transfer.
• Prescription. Possession does not ripen into title over public dominion property. Patrimonial and private property may be acquired by prescription when the requisites of possession, time, good faith or title when required, and legal capacity of the property are present.
• Registration. Only land capable of private ownership may be registered. Registration cannot cure the inalienable character of forest land, mineral land, foreshore land, road land, public plaza, riverbed, or other property outside commerce.
• Execution and attachment. Property devoted to public use or public service is generally immune from levy because execution cannot disable the government from performing public functions. Patrimonial property may be reached only in the manner and under the conditions allowed by law.
• Possession by private persons. Private occupation of public dominion property is tolerated only when authorized by law, license, lease, concession, or permit. Unauthorized occupation creates no vested ownership and may be ended through appropriate administrative or judicial remedies.
• Tax and documentary evidence. Tax declarations, assessments, surveys, and private deeds may evidence claims over private or patrimonial property, but they do not prove that public dominion property has become alienable, disposable, or patrimonial.

Working Distinctions

The controlling inquiry is the legal status of the property at the time the right is asserted. If the property is still of public dominion, private acts cannot create ownership. If it has become patrimonial, government ownership continues but the property may enter commerce under governing laws. If it is privately owned, ordinary civil law rules on ownership, possession, transfer, registration, and remedies apply, subject to public law restrictions.