 Sec. 3.

Lands of the public domain are classified into

agricultural forest or timber, mineral lands and national
parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be
further classified by law according to the uses to which
they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public
domain shall be limited to agricultural lands. Private
corporations or associations may not hold such
alienable lands of the public domain except by lease,
for a period not exceeding twenty-five years, renewable
for not more than twenty-five years, and not to exceed
one thousand hectares in area. Citizens of the
Philippines may lease not more than five hundred
hectares, or acquire not more than twelve hectares
thereof, by purchase, homestead, or grant.
 Taking into account the
requirements of conservation,
ecology, and development, and
subject to the requirements of
agrarian reform, the Congress
shall determine, by law, the size
of lands of the public domain
which may be acquired,
developed, held, or leased and
the conditions therefor.
 Sec. 4. The Congress shall, as soon as
possible, determine, by law, the specific
limits of forest lands and national parks,
marking clearly their boundaries on the
ground. Thereafter, such forest lands and
national parks shall be conserved and may
not be increased nor diminished, except by
law. The Congress shall provide for such
period as it may determine, measures to
prohibit logging in endangered forests and
watershed areas.
Park – a large area
of public land kept
in its natural state
to protect plants
and animals
 national park is a park in use
for conservation purposes. Often it is
a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or
developed land that a sovereign state
declares or owns. Although individual
nations designate their own national
parks differently, there is a common
idea: the conservation of 'wild nature'
for posterity and as a symbol of
national pride.
 NationalParks of the
Philippines are places of
natural or historical value
designated for protection and
sustainable utilization by
DENR under the National
Integrated Protected Areas
System Act (1992).
 In2012, there were
240 protected areas in the
Philippines, of which 35 have
been classified as National
Parks. By June 22, 2018, the
number of designated national
parks in the country has
increased to 94.
 ANACT PROVIDING FOR THE
ESTABLISHMENT AND
MANAGEMENT OF NATIONAL
INTEGRATED PROTECTED
AREAS SYSTEM, DEFINING ITS
SCOPE AND COVERAGE, AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES
 Biak-na-Bato National Park (Bulacan)
 Caramoan Peninsula National Park (Camarines Sur)
 Hundred Islands National Park
 Minalungao National Park (Nueva Ecija)
 Fuyot Springs National Park (Sierra Madre)
 Mount Arayat National Park (Central Luzon)
 Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park
 The Bulabog Putian National Park is a
protected wildlife and natural park located
in the towns of Dingle and San Enrique in
the province of Iloilo on the island
of Panay in the Western Visayas region. The
park covers an area of 854.33 hectares
(2,111.1 acres) along a 40 kilometers
(25 mi) trail in this rainforest. It was
established in 1961 through Proclamation
No. 760 signed by President Carlos P.
Garcia.
 The park is known for its
unique geological formation
and is the only limestone
mountain formation in Iloilo. It
is also known as the location
of the Cry of Lincud which
started the Phlippine
Revolution in Iloilo in 1898.
 SECTION 7. The State shall protect the
rights of subsistence fishermen,
especially of local communities, to the
preferential use of local marine and
fishing resources, both inland and
offshore. It shall provide support to
such fishermen through appropriate
technology and research, adequate
financial, production, and marketing
assistance, and other services.
 The State shall also protect,
develop, and conserve such
resources. The protection shall
extend to offshore fishing grounds
of subsistence fishermen against
foreign intrusion. Fishworkers shall
receive a just share from their labor
in the utilization of marine and
fishing resources.
 The President may enter into agreements
with foreign-owned corporations involving
either technical or financial assistance for
large-scale exploration, development, and
utilization of minerals, petroleum, and
other mineral oils according to the general
terms and conditions provided by law,
based on real contributions to the economic
growth and general welfare of the country.
In such agreements, the State shall promote
the development and use of local scientific
and technical resources.
 SECTION 7. Local governments shall
be entitled to an equitable share in
the proceeds of the utilization and
development of the national wealth
within their respective areas, in the
manner provided by law, including
sharing the same with the
inhabitants by way of direct
benefits.
 Section 7 gives yet another source of
revenue for local governments: share in the
proceeds from the exploitation and
development of natural resources found
within the locality. This can take the form of
financial benefits for the local units coming
from development, and it can also take the
form of direct benefit for the population
coming in the form, for instance, cheaper
electric power rates for energy sourced in
the locality, or priority in employment. This
can be effected through either national or
local laws. -Bernas
 SECTION 7. The right of the people to
information on matters of public
concern shall be recognized. Access to
official records, and to documents,
and papers pertaining to official acts,
transactions, or decisions, as well as
to government research data used as
basis for policy development, shall be
afforded the citizen, subject to such
limitations as may be provided by law.
The said case
enumerated
recognized
limitations on the
right to information.
 These include state secrets regarding
military, diplomatic and other national
security, and information on inter-
government exchanges prior to the
conclusion of treaties and executive
agreements. Where there is no need to
protect state secrets, the privilege to
withhold documents and other information
may not be invoked, provided that they are
examined “in strict confidence” and given
“scrupulous protection”.
 This is pursuant to the
Intellectual Property Code
(RA 8283) and other
related laws, and to the
Secrecy of Bank Deposits
Act (RA 1405)
1. There must be a pending case before a
court of competent jurisdiction
2. The account must be clearly identified
3. The inspection is limited to the subject
matter of the pending case before the
court of competent jurisdiction
4. The bank personnel and the account
holder must be notified to be present
during the inspection
5. Inspection may cover only the account
identified in the pending case
 Criminal matters or classified law
enforcement matters, “such as those
relating to the apprehension, the
prosecution and the detention of
criminals, which courts may not
inquire into prior to such arrest,
detention and prosecution.”
Otherwise, efforts at effective law
enforcement would be seriously
jeopardized.
 RA 6713 prohibits public officials and
employees from using or divulging
“confidential or classified information
officially known to them by reason of their
office and not made available to the public.”
Other acknowledged limitations include
diplomatic correspondence, closed door
Cabinet meetings and executive sessions of
house of Congress, and the internal
deliberations of the Supreme Court.
ArticleIII, Section 7
is interrelated with
Article II, Section 28
 SECTION 28. Subject to
reasonable conditions
prescribed by law, the State
adopts and implements a
policy of full public disclosure
of all its transactions
involving public interest.
 EO 464 on freedom on Information
 Transparency Act
 EO 364 – Executive privilege
 EO 2, s. 2016 (July 31, 2016) – on Executive
Department
 RA 10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012)
 National Privacy Commission – implementor
of RA 10173
 Section 15. The state shall
respect the role of independent
people’s organizations to enable
the people to purse and protect,
within the democratic framework,
their legitimate and collective
interests and aspirations through
peaceful and lawful means.
 People’s organizations are
bona fide associations of
citizens with demonstrated
capacity to promote the
public interest and with
identifiable leadership,
membership, and structure.
 Section 16. The right of the
people and their organizations to
effective and reasonable
participation at all levels of social,
political, and economic decision-
making shall not be abridged. The
state shall, by law, facilitate the
establishment of adequate
consultation mechanisms.
 TheState, subject to the
provisions of this Constitution
and national development policies
and programs, shall protect the
rights of indigenous cultural
communities to their ancestral
lands to ensure their economic,
social, and cultural wellbeing.
 The Congress may provide
for the applicability of
customary laws governing
property rights or relations
in determining the
ownership and extent of
ancestral domain
 In 1903, Don Mateo Cariño, an Igoroy,
sought to register with the land registration
court 146 hectares of land in Baguio
Municipality, Benguet Province. He claimed
that this land had been possessed and
occupied by his ancestors since time
immemorial; that his grandfather built fences
around the property for the holding of cattle
and that his father cultivated some parts of
the land. Cariño inherited the land in
accordance with Igorot custom.
 He tried to have the land adjusted under the
Spanish land laws, but no document issued
from the Spanish Crown. In 1901, Cariño
obtained a possessory title to the land under
the Spanish Mortgage Law. The North American
colonial government, however, ignored his
possessory title and build a public road on the
land prompting him to seek a Torrens title to
his property in the land registration court.
While his petition was pending a US military
reservation was proclaimed over his land and,
shortly thereafter, a military detachment was
detailed on the property with orders to keep
cattle and trespassers, including Cariño, off the
land.
 In 1904, the land registration court granted Cariño’s
application for absolute ownership to the land. Both
the Government of the Philippine Islands and the US
Goernment appealed to the CFI of Benguet which
reversed the land registration court and dismissed
Cariño’s application. The Philippine Supreme Court
affirmed the CFI. Cariño took the case to the US
Supreme Court. The Philippine Government
contended that Cariño failed to comply with the
provisions of the Royal Decree of June 25, 1880,
which required registration of land claims within a
limited period of time. Cariño, on the other hand,
asserted that he was the absolute owner of the land
jure gentium, and that the land never formed part of
the public domain.
WON Cariño can
be granted
ownership of the
land
 YES. It is true that Spain, in its earlier decrees, embodied
the universal feudal theory that all lands were held from
the Crown, and perhaps the general attitude of
conquering nations toward people not recognized as
entitled to the treatment accorded to those in the same
zone of civilization with themselves. It is true, also, that
in legal theory, sovereignty is absolute, and that, as
against foreign nations, the United States may assert, as
Spain asserted, absolute power. But it does not follow
that, as against the inhabitants of the Philippines, the
United States asserts that Spain had such power. When
theory is left on one side, sovereignty shall insist upon
the theoretical relation of the subjects to the head in the
past, and how far it shall recognized actual facts, are
matters for it to decide.
 TheUS Supreme Court,
noted that it need not
accept Spanish doctrines.
The choice was with the
new colonizer. Ultimately,
the matter had to be
decided under US law.
 This is a suit for prohibition and
mandamus assailing the constitutionality
of certain provisions of RA 8371
(Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997
(IPRA)) and its IRR on the ground that they
amount to an unlawful deprivation of the
State’s ownership over lands of the public
domain as well as minerals and other
natural resources therein, in violation of
the Regalian Doctrine embodied in Section
2, Article XII of the Constitution.
 The Court en banc deliberated on the
petition and the votes gathered were
equally divided with no majority vote
obtained. Seven (7) members voted to
dismiss the petition. Seven (7) other
members voted to grant the petition.
After re-deliberation, the voting remained
the same (7 to 7). Thus, the petition,
pursuant to Rule 56, Section 7 of the
Rules of Civil Procedure, was dismissed.
 WON Section 3(a) and (b), 5, 6, 7,
8,57, and 58 of RA 8371 (IPRA) and its
IRR are unconstitutional for unlawfully
depriving the State of its ownership
over lands of the public domain,
minerals, and other natural resources
therein, violating the regalia doctrine
enshrined in Section, Article XII of the
Constitution.
 Justice Kapunan: No. Said provisions
affirming the ownership b indigenous peoples
of their ancestral lands and domains by virtue
of native title (def: lands held in private
ownership since time immemorial) do not
diminish the State’s ownership of lands with
the public domain because said ancestral
lands and domains are considered as private
land and never to have been part of the
public domain, following the doctrine laid
down in Cariño vs. Insular Government.
 No. The IPRA was enacted by
Congress not only to fulfil the
constitutional mandate of
protecting the indigenous cultural
communities’ right to their ancestral
land but more importantly, to
correct a grave historical injustice to
our indigenous people.
 The struggle of the Filipinos throughout
colonial history had been plagued by ethnic
and religious differences. These differences
were carried over and magnified by the
Philippine government through the
imposition of a national legal order that is
mostly foreign in origin or derivation.
Largely unpopulist, the present legal system
legal system has resulted in the alienation
of a large sector of society, specifically, the
indigenous people.
 The histories and cultures of the
indigenes are relevant to the evolution of
Philippine culture and are vital to the
understanding of contemporary
problems. It is through the IPRA that an
attempt was made by our legislators to
understand to understand Filipino
society not in terms of myths and biases
by through common experiences in the
course of history.
 The Philippines became a democracy a
centennial ago and the decolonization
process still continues. If the evolution of the
Filipino people into a democratic society is to
truly proceed democratically, i.e., if the
Filipinos as a whole are to participate fully in
the task of continuing democratization, it is
this Court’s duty to acknowledge the
presence of indigenous and customary laws
in the country and affirm their co-existence
with the land laws in our national legal
system.
IPRAis
constitutional