Art XII, Sec.

2 of the 1987 Constitution concept of Regalian Doctrine

The Concept of Jure Doctrine)
This principle means that all natural wealth - agricultural, forest or timber, and mineral lands of the public
domain and all other natural resources belong to the State. Thus, even if the private person owns the
property where minerals are discovered, his ownership for such does not give him the right to extract or
utilize said minerals without permission from the state to which such minerals belong.
The abovementioned provision provides that except for agricultural lands for public domain which alone
may be alienated, forest or timber, and mineral lands, as well as all other natural resources must remain
with the State, the exploration, development and utilization of which shall be subject to its full control and
supervision albeit allowing it to enter into coproduction, joint venture or production-sharing agreements,
or into agreements with foreign-owned corporations involving technical or financial assistance for largescale exploration, development, and utilization.
The Laws of Indies
The Regalian Doctrine or jura regalia is a Western legal concept first introduced by the Spaniards
through the Laws of Indies and the Royal Cedulas. All lands became the exclusive dominion of the
Spanish Crown, and the Spanish Government took charge of distributing the lands by issuing royal grants
and concessions to Spaniards. Private land titles can only be acquired from the government by purchase
or other land grant from the Crown.
The Law of Indies was followed by the Mortgage Law of 1893 which provided for the systematic
registration of titles and deeds. The Maura Law of 1894 was the last Spanish law promulgated in the
Philippines, which required the registration of all agricultural lands; otherwise the lands shall revert to the
state.
Public Land Acts and the Torrens System
Act No. 926, the first Public Land Act, was passed in pursuance with the Philippine Bill of 1902,
governing the disposition of land of public domain. It prescribe rules for the homesteading, selling and
leasing of portions of the public domain, and to enable persons to perfect their titles to public lands. It
also provided for the issuance of patents to certain native settlers upon public lands.
Act No. 926 was superseded by the Act 2874, the second Public Land Act, passed under the Jones Law. it
limited the exploitation of agricultural lands to Filipinos and Americans and citizens of other countries
which gave the Filipinos the same privileges.
It was amended by Commonwealth Act No. 141which remains the present Public Land Law.
Grants of public land were brought under the operation of the Torrens System under Act 496 which
placed all public and private lands in the Philippines under the Torrens system, requiring that the
government issue an official certificate of title attesting to the fact that the person named is the owner of
the property described.
The Philippine Constitutions
The Regalian Doctrine was enshrined in the 1935, 1973 and 1987 Constitutions which basically states
that all lands of the public domain as well as natural resources, whether on public or private land, belong
to the State. It is this concept of state ownership that petitioners claim is being violated by the IPRA.