{"id":830,"date":"2009-06-11T01:38:20","date_gmt":"2009-06-10T17:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jlp-law.com\/blog\/?p=830"},"modified":"2020-06-07T19:02:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T11:02:43","slug":"ownership-of-philippine-land-by-foreigners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/ownership-of-philippine-land-by-foreigners\/","title":{"rendered":"Ownership of Philippine Land by Foreigners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Aliens, as a general rule, are not allowed to own real property in the Philippines. By &#8220;aliens&#8221;, we don&#8217;t mean creatures from outer space, but persons who are citizens of other countries. By &#8220;general rule&#8221;, we mean that there are certain exceptions, and two of such exceptions are discussed below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"838\" height=\"627\" src=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Ownership-by-Foreigners-of-Real-Estate-in-the-Philippines.png\" alt=\"Ownership by Foreigners of Real Estate in the Philippines\" class=\"wp-image-8082\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The prohibition on foreigners owning Philippine lands is embodied in no less than the Philippine Constitution. This, in fact, is one of the usual <a href=\"http:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/house-resolution-1109-re-constitutional-amendment-or-revision\/\">reason<\/a> cited by those who want to revise or amend the Constitution.&nbsp; The <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/philippine-constitution-1987\/\">Constitution<\/a> provides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Save in cases of hereditary succession, no private lands shall be transferred or conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/1987-constitution-article-xii-national-economy-patrimony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Article XII, Section 7<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s clear from this provision that private land may be transferred only to persons or entitles who\/which has the capacity &#8220;to acquire or hold lands of the public domain.&#8221; Those who are qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>1. Filipino citizens.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>2. Corporations at least 60% of the capital of which is owned by Filipinos.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, the Constitution explicitly prohibits non-Filipinos from acquiring or holding title to private lands. Among the exceptions are as follows: (1) transfer to an alien by way of legal succession; or (2) if the acquisition was made by a former natural-born citizen. The <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/philippine-constitution-1987\/\">Constitution<\/a> provides that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 7 of this Article, a natural-born citizen of the Philippines who has lost his Philippine citizenship may be a transferee of private lands, subject to limitations provided by law.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/1987-constitution-article-xii-national-economy-patrimony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Art. XII, Sec. 8<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court reiterated this general rule in a recent case (<em>Borromeo vs. Descallar<\/em>, G.R. No. 159310, 24 February 2009). The Court also reiterated the consistent ruling that if land is invalidly transferred to an alien who subsequently becomes a Filipino citizen or transfers it to a Filipino, the flaw in the original transaction is considered cured and the title of the transferee is rendered valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are other exceptions to the prohibition on aliens owning real property in the Philippines, like full ownership by foreigners of <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/the-condominium-act-republic-act-no-4726-full-text\/\">condominium units<\/a>, but this shall be the subject of future discussions. [See also <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/land-ownership-by-former-natural-born-filipinos\/\">Ownership of land by former Filipinos<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aliens, as a general rule, are not allowed to own real property in the Philippines. By &#8220;aliens&#8221;, we don&#8217;t mean creatures from outer space, but persons who are citizens of other countries. By &#8220;general rule&#8221;, we mean that there are certain exceptions, and two of such exceptions are discussed below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1340,478],"tags":[369,522,370,523],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-investments","category-property-estate-law","tag-alien","tag-land","tag-non-filipino","tag-real-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8083,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/8083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}