8/10/2019 # 5 Hilario vs Salvador

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8/10/2019 # 5 Hilario vs Salvador

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The action of the petitioners filed on September 3, 1996 does not involve aclaim of ownership over the property. They allege that they are co-ownersthereof, and as such, entitled to its possession, and that the private respondent,who was the defendant, constructed his house thereon in 1989 without theirknowledge and refused to vacate the property despite demands for him to do so.

They prayed that the private respondent vacate the property and restorepossession thereof to them.

When the petitioners filed their complaint on September 3, 1996, R.A. No.7691 was already in effect.

The determining jurisdictional element for the accion reinvindicatoria is, asRA 7691 discloses, the assessed value of the property in question. Forproperties in the provinces, the RTC has jurisdiction if the assessed valueexceeds P20,000, and the MTC, if the value is P20,000 or below. An assessedvalue can have reference only to the tax rolls in the municipality where the

property is located, and is contained in the tax declaration. In the case at bench,the most recent tax declaration secured and presented by the plaintiffs-appelleesis Exhibit B. The loose remark made by them that the property was worth 3.5million pesos, not to mention that there is absolutely no evidence for this, isirrelevant in the light of the fact that there is an assessed value. It is the amountin the tax declaration that should be consulted and no other kind of value, and asappearing in Exhibit B, this is P5,950. The case, therefore, falls within theexclusive original jurisdiction of the Municipal Trial Court of Romblon which has

jurisdiction over the territory where the property is located, and not the court aquo.