LAND REGISTRATION ACT; REGISTRATION OF TITLE TO BUILDINGS; CONTRIBUTION TO THE ASSURANCE FUND. — The owner of buildings erected on premises leased from another person is required to contribute to the assurance fund when he petitions for annotation of his ownership on the corresponding certificate of Torrens title.

The issue for adjudication is whether the owner of buildings erected on premises leased from another person is required to contribute to the assurance fund when he petitions for annotation of his ownership on the corresponding certificate of Torrens Title.

The facts are simple: The Manila Trading and Supply Co., a corporation, is the lessee of three parcels of land in the Port Area, Manila, belonging to the Philippine Government, such lease having been recorded on the Government’s certificate of title No. 4938. The structures built by said company upon the lots were destroyed during the last war; but after liberation, it erected new buildings that cost over a million pesos. Thereafter, on April 2, 1951 it requested the Manila Court of First Instance to require the register of deeds to enter and annotate, on certificate of title No. 4938, its declaration of property ownership of such valuable improvements. The court granted the request. 1 Then the register of deeds demanded payment of P1,308 for the assurance fund pursuant to section 99 of Act No. 496. The company refused to pay, and applied to the court for relief thru a petition-consultation. The register of deeds was upheld. Hence this appeal.

Section 99 provides in part:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"Upon the original registration of land under this Act, and also upon the entry of a certificate showing title as registered owners in heirs or devisees, there shall be paid to the register of deeds one-tenth of one per centum of the assessed value of the real estate on the basis of the last assessment for municipal taxation, as an assurance fund . . ."cralaw virtua1aw library

The Honorable Ramon R. San Jose, Judge, approving the register’s action explained:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

". . . considerando que la anotación de la citada orden, juntamente con el expresado affidavit, en el certificado de titulo No. 4938 del Gobierno de Filipinas, crea un interes en el terreno descrito en el referido titulo sobre todo en el presente caso en que consta inscrito un contrato de arrendamiento del terreno entre el Gobierno y la dueña de los edificios, este juzgado es de opinión que la cuestión discutida cae de lleno bajo las disposiciones legales que hablan no solamente de terreno, sino tambien de ’real estate’ y de ’interes’ en el terreno y dan protección a los que, sin negligencia suya, pierdan irreivindicablemente su derecho, interes o participación, en el terreno y/o las mejores existentes en el mismo. Es injusto que la recurrente tenga la protección de sus edificios bajo el fondo de aseguro y no haga su contribución al mismo . . ."cralaw virtua1aw library

The attorney for appellant insists here that section 99 is inapplicable, because the matter is not original registration of "land", nor entry of a certificate showing title as registered owners in heirs or devisees. The Legislature knew, he argues, that "buildings" and "improvements" are not "land."

Upon examination of the whole Land Registration Act we are satisfied that "land" as used in section 99 includes buildings. For one thing the same section uses "real estate" as synonymous with land. And buildings are "real estate" (section 334, Civil Code, article 415, New Civil Code; Rep