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ALEXANDER A.

KRIVENKO​, petitioner-appellant,
vs.
THE REGISTER OF DEEDS, CITY OF MANILA​, respondent and appellee.
G.R. No. L-630 November 15, 1947

Facts​:
● December 1941: Petitioner, an alien, bought a residential lot from the Magdalena
Estate, Inc., in, the registration of which was interrupted by the war.
● May 1945: Petitioner sought to accomplish said registration but was denied by the
register of deeds of Manila on the ground that, being an alien, he cannot acquire land
in this jurisdiction.
● Krivenko brought the case to the fourth branch of the CFI of Manila by means of a
consulta​, and that court rendered judgment sustaining the refusal of the register of
deeds, from which Krivenko appealed to this Court.
● Petitioner filed a motion for withdrawal which stated no reason whatsoever, and the
Solicitor General was agreeable to it.
● While the motion was pending in this Court, came the new circular of the Department
of Justice, instructing all register of deeds to accept for registration all transfers of
residential lots to aliens.
● The SC, in its conviction that their indifference of today might signify a permanent
offense to the Constitution, denied the motion withdrawing the appeal.

Issue​: WON an alien under our Constitution may acquire residential land

Held​: No.
● In Article XIII, section 1, of the Constitutional, "public agricultural lands" had then
acquired a technical meaning that was well-known to the members of the
Constitutional Convention who were mostly members of the legal profession. It may
safely be presumed, therefore, that what the members of the Constitutional
Convention had in mind when they drafted the Constitution was this well-known
classification and its technical meaning then prevailing. (​Note​: Technical meaning of
“public agricultural lands” referred to those lands that were not timber or mineral, and
as including residential lands.)
● Therefore, the phrase "public agricultural lands" appearing in section 1 of Article XIII
of the Constitution must be construed as including residential lands, and this is in
conformity with a legislative interpretation given after the adoption of the Constitution.
● It is a fundamental rule that, in construing constitutions, terms employed therein shall
be given the meaning which had been put upon them, and which they possessed, at
the time of the framing and adoption of the instrument.

Dispositive portion: ​For all the foregoing, we hold that under the Constitution aliens may not
acquire private or public agricultural lands, including residential lands, and, accordingly,
judgment is affirmed, without costs.

Feria, Pablo, Perfecto, Hilado, and Briones, JJ., concur.


Paras, Bengzon, Padilla, and Tuason dissented
Article XIII, section 1, of the Constitutional:
Article XIII. — Conservation and utilization of natural resources.
SECTION 1. All agricultural, timber, and mineral lands of the public domain,
water, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, and
other natural resources of the Philippines belong to the State, and their disposition,
exploitation, development, or utilization shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to
corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of the capital of which is owned by
such citizens, subject to any existing right, grant, lease, or concession at the time of the
inaguration of the Government established uunder this Constitution. Natural resources, with
the exception of public agricultural land, shall not be alienated, and no licence, concession,
or lease for the exploitation, development, or utilization of any of the natural resources shall
be granted for a period exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for another twenty-five
years, except as to water rights for irrigation, water supply, fisheries, or industrial uses other
than the development of water "power" in which cases beneficial use may be the measure
and the limit of the grant.

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