REGISTRATION OF INSTRUMENTS AFFECTING TITLED LANDS UNDER ACT. NO. 3344 INEFFECTIVE AGAINST THIRD PERSONS

> Registration of instruments must be done in the proper registry in order to bind the land

> Where property registered under the Torrens system is registered not under the Property Registration Decree but under Act 3344, the sale is considered not registered and effective for purposes of Article 1544 of the CC on double sales

> A party who registered the sale of land under the PRD had a better right opposed to another who had registered a deed of final conveyance under Act No. 3344—priority in time principle wasn’t applied because the land was already covered by the Torrens system at the time the conveyance was registered under the Act

> “without prejudice to a third party with a better right”—mere registration of sale in one’s favor doesn’t give him any right over the land if the vendor wasn’t anymore the owner of the land having previously sold the same to somebody else even if the earlier sale was unrecovered