RONQUILLO V. COURT OF APPEALS

FACTS:

Del Rosario owns a registered land adjacent to Estero Calubcub which is already dried up due to the dumping of garbage by the sorrounding neighborhood and not by any natural causes. Defendant now occupies said dried up land until Del Rosario, claiming ownership over the same, required him to vacate on the basis of Article 370 of the Civil Code which provides that riparian owner owns the dried up river bed abandoned by natural changes.

ISSUE:

Whether or not  Article 370 applies

RULING: No.

The rules on alluvion do not apply to man-made or artificial accretions nor to accretions to lands that adjoin canals or esteros or artificial drainage systems. Considering our earlier finding that the dried-up portion of Estero Calubcub was actually caused by the active intervention of man, it follows that Article 370 does not apply to the case at bar and, hence, the Del Rosarios cannot be entitled thereto supposedly as riparian owners.

The dried-up portion of Estero Calubcub should thus be considered as forming part of the land of the public domain which cannot be subject to acquisition by private ownership.