Petitioners allege that they purchased a parcel of

land from the Madrid brothers, evidenced by a deed

of sale executed in May 1959. They assert that they
have been in actual, physical, continuous, and open
possession of the property since 1959. Meanwhile,
Pacifico Marquez, who has in his possession a
Torrens title over the lot, said that he is an innocent
purchaser from the Madrid brothers in 1976.
The Madrids denied having executed the deed of
sale and assuming that such document exists, it is
fictitious and falsified. They also claimed that
petitioners are in actual possession of the lot, but the
same is in defiance of their repeated demands to
vacate the premises.
During trial, petitioners presented a photo copy of
the deed of sale (Exhibit A) as the original deed was
lost. Trial court dismissed the petition and ruled that
Exhibit A was inadmissible because a duplicate
original carbon copy of the alleged sale was still in
dela Cruzs possession and that the latter must have
accounted for it. No such attempt was done.

The CA reversed the judgment and ruled that Exhibit

A was admissible in evidence for failure of the
private respondents to object when it was offered
during the trial. They did not raise the issue of
Exhibit A not being the best evidence, that it was
merely secondary evidence. It further held that
failure to object constituted a waiver. However, CA
still ruled that Exhibit A had no probative value to
support the allegation of the petitioners that the
disupted land was sold to them in 1959.
Petitioners elevated the petition to the SC,
maintaining that they were able to present other
substantial evidence to prove the sale: the testimony
of the notary public who acknowledged the due
execution of the deed of sale and their possession of
the land.
WON there was enough evidence to support the
validity of the sale

The notary public testified that the document has

about five copies. It is imperative that all the
originals must be accounted for before the secondary
evidence can be presented. Petitioners presented
none of these. Their conet