Art. 462. Whenever a river, changing its course by natural causes, opens a new bed through a private estate, this bed shall become of public dominion. (Civil Code)


A river changes its course by natural causes and opens a new bed through a private estate. Who owns the new river bed?

 Even if the new bed is on private property, the bed becomes property of public dominion just as the old bed had been of public dominion before the abandonment.


If the new river bed is itself abandoned because of a new change of course, who owns the abandoned river bed?

 It is believed that the following solution would be just:

  1. Apply Art. 461. The owner of the land flooded by the new change of course would own the newly abandoned bed.
  2. If the river goes back to its old course (thus, flooding the original bed), the owner of the land originally flooded would get back the ownership of the land (bed) which he had lost.

Case:

When for the first time the flood moved the Pampanga River into the lots of the plaintiffs, the bed thus newly covered by its waters became property of public ownership. But when the next flood transferred the river bed farther south into plaintiffs' lands, they ipso facto recovered the bed they had first lost, even as the new bed on their property accrued to the public domain. (Crespo vs Bolandos, G.R. No. L-13267, July 26, 1960)


Reference:
Edgardo L. Paras, Civil Code of the Philippines Annotated, Book II, Property