29/01/2026
Why Should a Landowner Pay When the Register of Deeds Loses Its Copy of the Title? ⚖️🏛️
Under our land registration system, there are two copies of every land title:
1️⃣ Owner’s Duplicate Title – kept safely by the landowner 📄
2️⃣ Original Title – kept by the Register of Deeds 🏛️
The government’s copy is the official record and is meant to be securely preserved 🔒.
Yet when the Register of Deeds loses or the its copy is destroyed, the law still requires the landowner to go to court and pay for the reconstitution - lawyer’s fees 💼, court costs 🏛️💵, and costly publication 📰.
This is required under Republic Act No. 26 (Reconstitution of Lost Title) in relation to PD 1529 (Property Registration Decree), even when the loss happened while the title was under government custody.
What seems unfair ⚖️ is that the landowner is made to bear the full cost of restoring a title that was lost while in government care.
R.A. 26 was enacted in 1946 📆. With today’s high legal and publication costs 💸, it may be time to revisit the law and consider fairer solutions when the loss is on the government’s side.
Land title protection is a public responsibility 🏛️. The cost of restoring that protection should not fall solely on private owners ⚖️🇵🇭
Send a message to learn more
