Short answer. Not while it is still a street. The Civil Code splits local government property into property for public use and patrimonial property, and only the second kind can be sold. The street has to be lawfully withdrawn from public use first; a deed signed before that step rests on nothing.
What the law says
The property of provinces, cities, and municipalities is divided into property for public use and patrimonial property.
Civil Code, Article 423 — Property of Local Governments. Read the full provision →
Two classes, and only one of them is saleable
Article 423 states the division plainly: the property of provinces, cities, and municipalities is divided into property for public use and patrimonial property. Everything a local government owns falls on one side or the other, and the side determines what may be done with it. Property for public use — the streets, plazas, public waters and the like — is held for the inhabitants and is outside commerce, so it cannot be sold, mortgaged or taken for the local government's debts. Patrimonial property is held the way a private owner holds his own, and may be dealt with accordingly.
A street is the textbook example of the first class
Streets are not municipal assets in the way a vacant lot bought by the city is an asset. They exist so that residents can move, so that fire trucks can reach houses, and so that the lots along them have access at all. A council that treats a street as inventory to be sold when the budget is tight is disposing of something it holds for others. That is why the question is never simply whether the local government owns the land — it usually does — but which of the two classes the land currently sits in.
The order of steps, which is where deals go wrong
A street can cease to be a street. The local council may withdraw it from public use, acting in that capacity and on the record, and once it does the land becomes patrimonial and can be conveyed. What cannot be done is the reverse: sign the deed, take the money, and regularise the closure afterwards. A buyer who paid before the withdrawal has bought a dispute rather than a lot, and every affected resident and adjoining owner has a reason to raise it. The date of the withdrawal, not the date of the deed, is the one to check.
What to ask for before buying a closed road lot
Ask for the council's own act closing the road, in full, and read what it actually covers — closures are often partial, describing a stretch or a width rather than the whole strip a seller points to. Compare it against the approved subdivision plan, since roads inside a subdivision may have been conveyed to the local government on terms of their own. Check whether any lot loses its access if the strip is fenced, because the owner of a landlocked lot has claims that survive the sale. Then have the boundaries relocated on the ground before you pay.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bataan vs. Congressman Enrique T. Garcia, Jr., et al, G.R. No. 174964, October 5, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Republic of the Philippines vs. Pedro O. Enciso, G.R. No. 160145, November 11, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →