Short answer. Yes. On those facts Article 891 makes the land reservable. You keep and use it for life, but you must hold it for your son's relatives within the third degree who belong to his father's line, and it passes to them on your death rather than to your own heirs.
What the law says
The ascendant who inherits from his descendant any property which the latter may have acquired by gratuitous title from another ascendant, or a brother or sister, is obliged to reserve such property as he may have acquired by operation of law
Civil Code, Article 891 — Reserva Troncal. Read the full provision →
What the law says
for the benefit of relatives who are within the third degree and who belong to the line from which said property came
Civil Code, Article 891 — Reserva Troncal. Read the full provision →
Why this property is different from the rest
Reserva troncal exists to stop property crossing permanently from one family line into the other by an accident of two deaths. The article obliges the ascendant who inherits from his descendant any property which the latter may have acquired by gratuitous title from another ascendant, or a brother or sister to hold it for the line it came from. Your son received the land from his father for nothing, then died, and it reached you by operation of law. Left alone, land that began on his father's side would end up with your relatives, and the article prevents exactly that.
The four conditions, and how yours are met
The reserva bites only when all of them are present. The property must have come to the descendant by gratuitous title — inheritance or donation, not purchase. It must have come from another ascendant or from a brother or sister. The descendant must then have died and the property passed to an ascendant by operation of law, meaning by intestacy or as legitime rather than under a will's free portion. And there must be relatives within the third degree in the originating line. Change any one of those and the property is ordinarily yours outright.
What you may and may not do with it meanwhile
You are the owner, not a caretaker without rights. You may possess the land, farm it, lease it and take its fruits, and the reservable character does not suspend ordinary use. What you cannot do is defeat the reservation: a sale or donation transfers only the resolvable interest you hold, and the reservatarios can claim the property when the reserva is discharged at your death. Because the restriction runs with the land rather than with a promise, it should be annotated on the title so that any buyer sees it and no one is misled.
Who ultimately takes it
Those within the third degree and who belong to the line from which said property came, counted from your son. In the usual case that is his full or half-siblings on the paternal side, his paternal grandparents, and in the appropriate case paternal uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces within that degree. If nobody in the originating line is left alive when you die, the reservation has no beneficiaries and the property stays with your estate. Establish the paternal side's family tree and the documents showing how the land was acquired before anything is sold.
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.
- Maria Mendoza, et al. vs. Julia Policarpio, et al, G.R. No. 176422, March 20, 2013 — read the decision on LawPhil →