Republic Act No. 931

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

Section 1

All persons claiming title to parcels of land that have been the object of cadastral proceedings, who at the time of the survey were in actual possession of the same, but for some justifiable reason had been unable to file their claim in the proper court during the time limit established by law, in case such parcels of land, on account of their failure to file such claims, have been, or are about to be declared land of the public domain, by virtue of judicial proceedings instituted within the forty years next preceding the approval of this Act, are hereby granted the right within five years after the date on which this Act shall take effect, to petition for a reopening of the judicial proceedings under the provisions of Act Numbered Twenty-two hundred and fifty-nine, as amended, only with respect to such of said parcels of land as have not been alienated, reserved, leased, granted, or otherwise provisionally or permanently disposed of by the Government, and the competent Court of First Instance, upon receiving such petition, shall notify the Government, through the Solicitor General, and if after hearing the parties, said court shall find that all conditions herein established have been complied with, and that all taxes, interests and penalties thereof have been paid from the time when land tax should have been collected until the day when the motion is presented, it shall order said judicial proceedings reopened as if no action has been taken on such parcels.

Section 2

If any claimant entitled to the right granted under the preceding section has filed an application for homestead, free patent sale or lease of the parcel of land in question under the provisions of Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred forty-one, otherwise known as the Public Land Act, and the corresponding certificate of title to the same has not yet been issued to him by the Director of lands, the said claimant is hereby granted the option to either withdraw said application or exercise the right granted by this Act.

Section 3

This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, June 20, 1953.