Short answer. Under Article 708 of the Civil Code, the Registry of Property exists to record acts and contracts relating to ownership and other rights over immovable property. It gives the public a reliable source for checking who holds title to land and what encumbrances, liens, or other real rights affect it.
What the law says
The Registry of Property has for its object the inscription or annotation of acts and contracts relating to the ownership and other rights over immovable property.
Civil Code, Article 708 — Purpose Of The Registry. Read the full provision →
What the Registry records
Article 708 of the Civil Code identifies the registry's core object: the inscription or annotation of acts and contracts that relate to ownership and other rights over immovable property. This covers documents that create, transfer, modify, or extinguish real rights — sale deeds, mortgages, donations, usufructs, easements, and similar instruments. The registry is not a repository of every contract; it is specifically concerned with rights that attach to land and buildings.
Why registration matters for third parties
The registry's purpose is fundamentally about notice. A sale between two private parties may be valid between them, but an unregistered right generally cannot be enforced against a third party who acquires the same property without knowledge of that right. By inscribing a transaction in the Registry of Property, the owner makes the right public — it becomes part of the official record that anyone dealing with the land is presumed to have seen. This protects buyers and lenders who search the registry before completing a transaction.
Inscription and annotation distinguished
Article 708 refers to both inscription and annotation. Inscription is the entry of a principal document — a deed of absolute sale, for example — that creates or transfers a right. Annotation is the entry of an encumbrance, adverse claim, or other matter that qualifies or burdens an already-registered right. A mortgage, a notice of lis pendens, or an adverse claim are annotated on the title. Together, inscription and annotation give a title a complete picture of what rights exist and what obligations run with the property.
Immovable property: what the registry covers
The Registry of Property operates exclusively with respect to immovable property — land, buildings, and other things attached to the ground in a fixed and permanent way. Rights over movable property follow different rules: a chattel mortgage, for instance, is registered with a different registry entirely. When a right involves both land and movables — a structure built on leased land, for example — only the real-property elements come within the scope of Article 708 and the registry it establishes.
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.
- Sps. Victor Valdez and Jocelyn Valdez etc. vs. Sps. Francisco & Caridad Tabisula, G.R. No. 175510, July 28, 2008 — read the decision on LawPhil →