Section 6Sec./Art. 6

Section 14 of Presidential Decree No. 1529 is hereby amended to read as follows:

SECTION 14.Who may apply.The following persons may file at any time, in the proper Regional Trial Court in the province where the land is located, an application for registration of title to land, not exceeding twelve (12) hectares, whether personally or through their duly authorized representatives:

(1) Those who by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest have been in open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation of alienable and disposable lands of the public domain not covered by existing certificates of title or patents under abona fideclaim of ownership for at least twenty (20) years immediately preceding the filing of the application for confirmation of title except when prevented by war orforce majeure.They shall be conclusively presumed to have performed all the conditions essential to a Government grant and shall be entitled to a certificate of title under this section.

(2) Those who have acquired ownership of private lands or abandoned riverbeds by right of accession or accretion under the provisions of existing laws.ℒαwρhi৷

(3) Those who have acquired ownership of land in any other manner provided for by law.

Where the land is owned in common, all the co-owners shall file the application jointly.

Where the land has been sold underpacto de retro,the vendor aretromay file an application for the original registration of the land:Provided, however,That should the period for redemption expire during the pendency of the registration proceedings and ownership to the property consolidated in the vendee aretro,the latter shall be substituted for the applicant and may continue the proceedings.

A trustee on behalf of the principal may apply for original registration of any land held in trust by the trustee, unless prohibited by the instrument creating the trust.