Quezon City and Alvin Emerson Yu v.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC)

GR 171033 / August 3, 2010

Facts:
Spouses Roberto and Monette Naval obtained a loan from RCBC secured by a real estate mortgage. The
real estate mortgage was eventually foreclosed. In an auction sale of tax delinquent properties, the
properties subject of the foreclosed real estate mortgage were included where Yu was the highest
bidder. He was issued a Certificate of Sale and such was registered in the Office of the Register of Deeds
of Quezon City on February 10, 2004. On June 10, 2004 RCBC paid for all assessed tax delinquencies,
interests, and other costs of the subject properties with the City Treasurer of Quezon City but it refused
accepting it. RCBC filed a petition for the acceptance of its tender of payment and for the subsequent
issuance of the certificate of redemption in its favor but such was denied. It then filed a petition for
Mandamus with prayer for issuance of a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction
before the trial court contending that it had until one year from the date of registration of the certificate
of sale to redeem its properties pursuant to Section 78 of Presidential Decree (PD) No. 464 or the Real
Property Tax Code. The trial court initially denied the petition but granted it upon RCBC’s motion for
reconsideration. It ordered Quezon City to accept tender of redemption payment and to issue the
corresponding certification of redemption in the name of RCBC. Hence, the appeal.

Issue:
Whether or not the one year redemption period shall be reckoned from the date of registration of the
certificate of sale.

Held:
No, the redemption period shall be reckoned from the date of sale pursuant to Republic Act 7160 of the
Local Government Code, Section 261, which repealed PD No. 464. It provides that a taxpayer has within
one year from date of sale from which it could redeem its property upon payment to the local treasurer
of the amount of delinquent tax. However, since Ordinance No. SP-91, S-93 which is a special law
provides that the reckoning period for redemption starts from the date of annotation of the sale of the
property at the proper registry, this shall govern concerning the reckoning of the period of redemption.
When there is a conflict between a general law and a special which involves the same matter, the
special law must prevail since it evinces the legislative intent more clearly than that of the general
statute. Also, it is the policy of the law to aid rather than defeat the owner’s right to his property in that
redemption laws are given a liberal construction. The trial court’s decision was affirmed by the Supreme
Court.