ARTICLE  X General Land Registration Office SECTION  196 . General Land Registration Office . — For the due effectuation and accomplishment of the laws relative to the registration of land there shall be maintained in the city of Manila, under the supervision of the judge of the fourth branch of the Co urt of First Instance of the Ninth Judicial District, an office to be known as the General Land Registration Office. [2347-13.] Said office shall be the head of the clerical and archival system of the Courts of First Instance throughout the Philippine Islands in the exercise of the faculties conferred upon them or upon judges of first instance in reference to the registration of la nd and shall constitute a central repository of records in matters connected therewith. [2347-15.] SECTION  197 . Chief and Assistant Chief of General Land Registration Office . — The General Land Registration Office shall have a chief and an assistant chief to be known, respectively, as the chief of the General Land Registration Office and assistant chief  of the General Land Registration Office. The chief of said office shall be a lawyer duly qualified by the Supreme Court of the Islands. The assistant chief shall serve as acting chief during the absence or disability of the chief, as he shall also do in case of the death, resignation, or removal of the chief, until the vacancy shall be filled. [2347-14.] SECTION  198 . Relation of Chief to Courts of First Instance . — The chief of the General Land Registration Office shall be deemed to be clerk of the fourth branch of the Court of First Instance of the Ninth District in the exercise of the functions conferred  upon said branch or the judge thereof in matters relating to the registration of land. As such it shall be his duty to attend, either in person or by deputy, all sessions of said court at which proceedings relative to the registration of land are held, to  keep minutes of such proceedings, and to perform with reference thereto all the duties of clerk of court. HSaIDc [2347-16 (g), 19.] The chief of the General Land Registration Office shall be deemed to be the Copyright 2012 CD Technologies Asia, Inc. and Accesslaw, Inc. Philippine Law Encyclopedia 2011 71