SC clarifies legal actions to recover ownership, possession of land

The Supreme Court (SC) has clarified the appropriate legal remedies for recovering a piece of land, whether for possession or ownership, and when to file the cases in courts.

- By REY G. PANALIGAN

In a full court decision written by Associate Justice Ricardo R. Rosario, the SC said the three legal remedies are ejectment, accion publiciana, and accion reivindicatoria.

The SC said a summary ejectment case is filed to recover physical possession of the land when the dispossession was due to force, intimidation, threat, strategy, or stealth and has not lasted for more than a year.

An accion publiciana is filed to recover possession when more than a year has passed since the dispossession, or even within a year if no force or similar means was involved, it also said.

An accion reivindicatoria is filed to recover both ownership and possession based on that ownership, it added.

The SC explained that in accion publiciana, the issue is who has the better right to possess the land, without necessarily claiming ownership.