Dear PAO
I bought a tract of land in the province early this year. I already paid half of the purchase price amounting to nearly a million.

When my authorized representative tried to transfer the title of the land to my name, the register of deeds confiscated the title and advised the former that the land cannot yet be sold because of the five-year prohibition. I just wonder if the denial was valid since the title covering the land is clean.
Ms. K

Dear Ms. K,
The denial for the transfer of title in your name as buyer may be valid. The five-year prohibition in the sale of land may refer to the prohibition imposed upon sale of land given through free patent or homestead. It is stated under Section 118 of the “Public Land Act” that lands acquired under free patent or homestead provisions shall not be subject to encumbrance or alienation from the date of the approval of the application and for a term of five years from and after the date of issuance of the patent or grant, nor shall they become liable to the satisfaction of any debt contracted prior to the expiration of said period; but the improvement or crops on the land may be mortgaged or pledge to qualified persons, associations, or corporations except in favor of the Government or any of its branches, units or institutions or legally constituted banking corporations. Any acquisition, conveyance, alienation, transfer or other contract made or executed in violation of provisions of Section 118 shall be unlawful and null and void from its execution and shall produce the effect of annulling and cancelling the grant, title, patent, or permit originally issued, recognized or confirmed, actually or presumptively and cause the reversion of the property and its improvement to the State (Section 124, Public Land Act) (Emphasis supplied).

In your case, if the land that you bought was given to the seller through a free patent or homestead, the sale executed in your favor is void if it was sold to you within five years from the date of the issuance of the title thereof. In addition thereto, the grant to the seller of the land shall be annulled and cancelled and the same shall be reverted back to the government. Since a void contract is inexistent from the beginning and cannot be ratified, your right as a buyer shall be subject to the provisions of Article 1412 of the Civil Code, which provides that “when the fault is on the part of both contracting parties, neither may recover what he has given by virtue of the contract, or demand the performance of the other’s undertaking; but when only one of the contracting parties is at fault, he cannot recover what he has given by reason of the contract, or ask for the fulfillment of what he has been promised him; The other who is not at fault, may demand the return of what he has given without any obligation to comply his promise.”

We hope that we were able to answer your queries. Please be reminded that this advice is based solely on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. Our opinion may vary when other facts are changed or elaborated.