THIRD DIVISION
[G.R. No. 254536. July 6, 2022.]
RODOLFO S. HUALDA*and JULITA HUALDA, petitioners, vs.FEBELITA H. SORIANO [WITH HER CHILDREN: JENNIFER SORIANO MARRIED TO OBET CASTILLO AND JEANITTE SORIANO], DOLLIE H. BANARIA (WITH HER HUSBAND GILBERTO BANARIA), ET AL., respondents.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Third Division, issued a Resolution datedJuly 6, 2022, which reads as follows: HTcADC
"G.R. No. 254536 (Rodolfo S. Hualda and Julita Hualda, petitioners, versus Febelita H. Soriano [with her children: Jennifer Soriano married to Obet Castillo and Jeanitte Soriano], Dollie H. Banaria (with her husband Gilberto Banaria), et al., respondents). — Before the Court is a Rule 45 certiorari Petition 1 assailing the Court of Appeals' 2 (CA) Decision 3 dated October 9, 2019 and Resolution 4 dated October 9, 2020 in CA-G.R. CV No. 107768. The CA Decision denied the appeal of herein petitioners and affirmed the Regional Trial Court's' 5 (RTC) Decision dated July 27, 2016 in Civil Case No. 8967, which declared that the property covered by Certificate of Title No. 56 (subject lot) as equally owned in common by the respective heirs of: 1) Vicente Hualda, 2) Clemente Hualda, 3) Pastor Hualda, and 4) Salome Hualda, and directed the parties to submit their project of partition within 60 days from notice. 6
Petitioners stress in their Petition that the lower courts should have given credence to the Sinumpaang Salaysay sa Sarilinang7Pagmamana ng Lupa and Bilihang Tuluyan ng Lupa upon which they anchor their ownership of the subject lot.
The Court agrees totally with the CA that the very title of the subject lot explicitly showed that it belonged to the heirs of Pedro Diwa, and not solely to petitioners' alleged seller, Imelda Hualda. 8 This fact alone should have served as a warning or a sign for petitioners to look beyond the title and determine who are the heirs of Pedro Diwa. 9 Even petitioner Julita Hualda (Julita) admitted, on cross-examination, that Clemente Hualda (Clemente), who declared in the Sinumpaang Salaysay sa Sarilinang Pagmamana ng Lupa that he was the sole heir of Catalina Diwa, who was herself the only heir of Pedro Diwa, had other siblings. 10 Clearly, Julita's testimony and Clemente's Sinumpaang Salaysay sa Sarilinang Pagmamana ng Lupa, as correctly ruled by the CA, are inconsistent with each other. 11 Since Clemente was not the sole owner of the subject lot, he could not have validly sold through the Bilihang Tuluyan ng Lupa the entire subject lot to Briccio and Imelda Hualda; and the latter, together with her two children, in turn, could not have validly sold the entire subject lot to petitioners. The CA, thus, committed no reversible error.
WHEREFORE, the instant Petition is DENIED.
SO ORDERED."
By authority of the Court:
(SGD.) MISAEL DOMINGO C. BATTUNG IIIDivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
* Deceased.
1. Rollo, pp. 10-21, excluding Annexes.
2. Eighth Division and Former Eighth Division.
3. Rollo, pp. 23-35. Penned by Associate Justice Tita Marilyn Payoyo-Villordon, with Associate Justices Ramon R. Garcia and Victoria Isabel A. Paredes concurring.
4. Id. at 37-38.
5. RTC, Branch 2, Balanga City, Bataan.
6. Rollo, p. 27.
7. "Sariling" in other parts of the rollo.
8. Rollo, p. 34.
9. Id.
10. Id. at 25 and 26.
11. Id. at 34.