Short answer. Generally yes, the right follows the land through successive buyers, but Article 1608 carves out an exception "with respect to third persons" under the registration laws. If your right to repurchase was never annotated on the title, a later buyer who purchased in good faith, relying on a clean certificate, can take the land free of your unregistered right.
What the law says
The vendor may bring his action against every possessor whose right is derived from the vendee
Civil Code, Article 1608 — Redemption Against Subsequent Possessors. Read the full provision →
What the law says
without prejudice to the provisions of the Mortgage Law and the Land Registration Law with respect to third persons.
Civil Code, Article 1608 — Redemption Against Subsequent Possessors. Read the full provision →
The general rule and its limit
Article 1608 lets a vendor chase his right to repurchase through anyone who later acquires the property from the original buyer, even if the later deed never mentions it. But the same sentence immediately qualifies that rule: it applies "without prejudice to the provisions of the Mortgage Law and the Land Registration Law with respect to third persons." That clause protects buyers who deal with land through the Torrens system without notice of an unrecorded claim.
What counts as good faith here
A purchaser is not "in good faith" for this purpose if the pacto de retro sale, or at least the right to repurchase, was annotated on the title he checked, or if he otherwise knew or should have known about it, such as from the seller's continued possession. Good faith protects someone who checked the title, found nothing about a repurchase right, and paid value without notice of the earlier arrangement. This protection covers only third-party purchasers and mortgagees who register in good faith; it does not shield the original vendee, who remains bound by the pacto de retro sale itself.
How a vendor protects the right
Because the exception exists, a vendor's practical safeguard is to have the right to repurchase, or at least a notice of it, annotated on the certificate of title right after the sale is signed, rather than trusting that a later buyer will somehow learn of it. An annotated right binds every subsequent buyer regardless of good faith, since anyone checking the title afterward is charged with notice of what appears on its face. Failing to annotate does not erase the vendor's rights entirely: he may still sue the original vendee personally for breach and recover damages or the repurchase price.
What if it was the sale itself that got annotated
Often the pacto de retro sale itself is what gets registered and annotated, which already carries the repurchase condition on its face; a buyer who later acquires from that vendee is deemed to have read the annotation and cannot claim good faith ignorance of the seller's right, so the general chase-through-successors rule applies without needing a separate notice of the right alone.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1608 — Redemption Against Subsequent Possessors
- Civil Code, Article 1607 — Consolidation of Ownership Needs a Court Order