No.

To prove that the land subject of an application for

Secretary of DENR vs Yap
Natural Resources and Environmental Laws: Regalian
Doctrine
GR No. 167707; Oct 8, 2008
FACTS:
This petition is for a review on certiorari of the decision of
the Court of Appeals (CA) affirming that of the Regional
Trial Court (RTC) in Kalibo Aklan, which granted the
petition for declaratory relief filed by respondents-claimants
Mayor Jose Yap et al, and ordered the survey of Boracay for
titling purposes.
On Nov. 10, 1978, President Marcos issued Proclamation
No. 1801 declaring Boracay Island as a tourist zone and
marine reserve. Claiming that Proc. No. 1801 precluded
them from filing an application for a judicial confirmation
of imperfect title or survey of land for titling purposes,
respondents-claimants filed a petition for declaratory relief
with the RTC in Kalibo, Aklan.
The Republic, through the Office of the Solicitor General
(OSG) opposed the petition countering that Boracay Island
was an unclassified land of the public domain. It formed
part of the mass of lands classified as “public forest,” which
was not available for disposition pursuant to section 3(a) of
PD No. 705 or the Revised Forestry Code.
registration is alienable, the applicant must establish the
existence of a positive act of the government such as a
presidential proclamation or an executive order, an
administrative action, investigative reports of the Bureau of
Lands investigators, and a legislative act or statute.
A positive act declaring land as alienable and disposable is
required. In keeping with the presumption of state
ownership, the Court has time and again emphasized that
there must be a positive act of the government, such as an
official proclamation, declassifying inalienable public land
into disposable land for agricultural or other purposes.
The Regalian Doctrine dictates that all lands of the public
domain belong to the State, that the State is the source of
any asserted right to ownership of land and charged with
the conservation of such patrimony.
All lands not otherwise appearing to be clearly within
private ownership are presumed to belong to the State.
Thus, all lands that have not been acquired from the
government, either by purchase or by grant, belong to the
State as part of the inalienable public domain.

ISSUE:
Whether unclassified lands of the public domain are
automatically deemed agricultural land, therefore making
these lands alienable.

HELD: