Short answer. In three ways under the Civil Code: by materially occupying the thing or exercising the right, by the thing being subject to the action of your will even without touching it, or by the proper acts and legal formalities the law lays down for acquiring that right.
What the law says
Possession is acquired by the material occupation of a thing or the exercise of a right, or by the fact that it is subject to the action of our will, or by the proper acts and legal formalities established for acquiring such right.
Civil Code, Article 531 — How Possession Is Acquired. Read the full provision →
Material occupation — the obvious way
The first mode is physical: the material occupation of a thing or the exercise of a right. You take the object in hand, move into the house, fence and plant the lot, or in the case of a right such as a passage, you actually use it. This is the mode that produces the evidence people instinctively look for — receipts for improvements, tax declarations, photographs, neighbours who can say who has been on the land and since when. Note that the article speaks of rights as well as things, so possession is not confined to what you can hold. A right of way, a lease, an easement of light: each is possessed by being exercised.
Subject to the action of our will
The second mode dispenses with touching. A thing is possessed once it is subject to the action of our will — that is, within your control and available to you whenever you choose. Goods stored in your warehouse while you are abroad, a vehicle in a garage whose only key you hold, farm equipment left in a shed on your land: none is in your hands, yet all answer to your will. What this mode does not cover is a thing you merely hope to obtain, or one that someone else controls in fact. Control has to be real, present and exclusive enough that you can deal with the thing at will.
Proper acts and legal formalities
The third mode is legal rather than physical: possession passes through the proper acts and legal formalities established for acquiring such right. The execution of a public instrument of sale, the handing over of the keys to a building, the delivery of documents of title to goods, or a court officer placing a party in possession under a writ — each transfers possession without anyone needing to walk the boundary. This is how buyers of land ordinarily acquire possession on the day of the deed. It has one important qualification: where the seller cannot in fact deliver because a third person is in occupation and refuses to leave, a formality alone may not achieve what it promises.
What acquiring possession does not give you
Possession is not ownership, and this article says nothing about who owns the thing. A tenant, a borrower, a depositary and a squatter all possess; only some of them own, and one of them possesses in bad faith. The distinction decides real consequences: whether you keep the fruits, whether you can recover what you spent on improvements, whether time can eventually ripen your holding into ownership, and what happens if you are ejected. Acts merely tolerated by the owner, and acts done by violence or stealth, do not give the possession the law protects. If someone is disputing your occupation, the periods for filing an ejectment case are short — take advice quickly rather than waiting for the dispute to cool.
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.
- Republic of the Philippines, et al. vs. Jerry V. David, G.R. No. 155634, August 16, 2004 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Heirs of Jose Extremadura, represented by Elena H. Extremadura vs. Manuel Extremadura and Marlon Extremadura, G.R. No. 211065, June 15, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Ericsson Telecommunication, Inc. vs. City of Pasig, et al, G.R. No. 176667, November 22, 2007 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Commissioner of Internal Revenue vs. BPI, G.R. No. 147375, June 26, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →