How to transfer land title from a dead person

Ask po ako ng legal advise. Meron pong hawak na title father ko ngayon, he got it w/ his co-pastor from an old house na binabantayan ng co-pastor nya. it include documents like land survey. Patay n po ang may ari, matandang dalaga ung may- ari t walang kapatid or anak. namatay ung may-ari sa America. nareceive lng ng co-pastor ang sulat from America that the owner of the land is already dead. Is there anyway to have the land title be transferred to my dad or his co-pastor? thank you!

there has to be an exhaustive search for any other relatives. the closest one should receive the property. if there is none, it will be the State who will receive the property.

If there is a will, or a deed of donation or sale to the church then perhaps it is still possible.

you can also check under the laws of the state where the owner in the US resided, but I do not believe there is any way under Philippine law.

Thank you for the information Sir!

My neighbor is paying taxes of an idle land in our subdivision. (just like the land of the dead owner and nobody's claiming it for 30 yrs) then she tells us that it is her land already. is that another way of owning a land or jusr lan grabbing? there are many idle land in our subdivision which nobody claims ownership of it for a long time (ex. 30 yrs)and most of the owner of block("not just lot")are attorneys or politician which for sure has a knowledge on things like that. I think most of people who has knowledge about owning a land doesn't even give effort to spend millions just to own a land. (they use alternative ways)

if the property is titled to another person in the Register of Deeds, no amount of mere payment of the taxes will result in transfer to her. However, if the local government has distrained the property for failure of the owner to pay real estate taxes and auctioned it, then it is possible for another person to acquire it through the auction.