B. Nationality Restrictions on Land Ownership (Const., Art. XII, Secs. 7–8)

B. Nationality Restrictions on Land Ownership (1987 CONST., art. XII, secs. 7-8)

> SECTION 7. 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. SECTION 8. 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.

Limitation to Ownership of Land

Only Filipino citizens may:

• Acquire not more than 12 hectares by purchase, homestead or grant, or
• Lease not more than 500 hectares of alienable lands of the public domain.

A qualified foreign investor may lease private land for a period not exceeding 99 years, subject to the conditions of the Investors’ Lease Act, as amended. (RA 7652, § 4, as amended by RA 12252.)

Limitation to Ownership of Land

• Private Lands
• By corporations at least 60% of whose capital must be Filipino-owned (PHIL. CONST., art. XII, §§ 3, 7.)
• Restricted as to extent reasonably necessary to enable it to carry out purpose for which it was created
• If engaged in agriculture, it is restricted to 1,024 hectares
• Lands of the public domain (PHIL. CONST., art. XII, § 3.)
• May only lease (cannot own land of the public domain) for 25 years, renewable for another 25 years
• Limited to 1,000 hectares
• Applies to qualified Filipino-owned corporations or associations; foreign corporations cannot lease lands of the public domain under Article XII, Section 3

Note: Determinative of this issue is the character of the parcels of land whether they were still public or already private when the registration proceedings were commenced. If they were already private lands, the constitutional prohibition against acquisitions by a private corporation would not apply. (Natividad v. CA, G.R. No. 88233, Oct. 4, 1991.)