Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled mid by the amen authority of the same:

SECTION 1. Section one hundred and ninety-four of Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and eleven, known as the Administrative Code, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 194. Recording of instruments or deeds relating to real estate not registered under Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety-six.—No instrument or deed establishing, transmitting, acknowledging, modifying or extinguishing rights with respect to real estate not registered under the provisions of Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety-six, entitled "The Land Registration Act," and its amendments, shall be valid, except as between the parties thereto, until such instrument or deed has been registered, in the manner hereinafter prescribed, in the office of the register of deeds for the province or city where the real estate lies.

"It shall be the duty of the register of deeds for each province or city to keep a day book and a register book for unregistered real estate, in accordance with a form to be prepared by the Chief of the General Land Registration Office, with the approval of the Secretary of Justice.  The day book shall contain the names of the parties, the nature of the instrument or deed for which registration is requested, the hour and minute, date and month of the year when the instrument was received.  The register book shall contain, among other particulars, the names of the parties interested in the act or contract registered, the character of the latter and its conditions, the nature of each piece of real estate, its situation, boundaries, area in square meters, whether or not the boundaries of the property are visible on the land by means of monuments or otherwise, and in the affirmative case, in what they consist; the permanent improvements existing on the property; the page number of the assessment of each property in the year when the entry is made, and the assessed value of the property for that year; the notary or other officer who acknowledged, issued or certified the instrument or deed; the name of the person or persons who, according to the instrument, are in present possession of each property; a note that the original instrument has been filed in the office of the register of deeds, indicating the file number, and that the duplicate has been delivered to the person concerned; the exact year, month, day, hour, and minute when the original of the instrument was received for registration, as stated in the day book.

"Upon presentation of any instrument or deed relating to real estate not registered under Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety-six and its amendments, which shall be accompanied by as many duplicates as there are parties interested, it shall be the duty of the register of deeds to ascertain whether said instrument has all the requirements for proper registration.  If the instrument is sufficient and there is no legitimate objection thereto, or, in case of there having been one, if the same has been dismissed by final judgment of the courts, and if there does not appear in the register any valid previous entry that may be affected wholly or in part by the registration of the instrument or deed presented, and if the case does not come under the prohibition of section fourteen hundred and fifty-two of Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and eleven, the register of deeds shall register the instrument in the proper book.  In case the instrument or deed presented has defects preventing its registration, said register of deeds shall refuse to register it until the defects have been removed, stating in writing his reasons for refusing to record said instrument as requested.  Any registration made under this section shall be understood to be without prejudice to a third party with a better right.

"The register of deeds shall be entitled to collect as fees for the services rendered by him with respect to instruments or deeds not registered under Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety-six and its amendments, the same fees established for similar services relating to instruments or deeds in connection with chattel mortgages in Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and eight, entitled "The Chattel Mortgage Law," as amended by Act Numbered Twenty-four hundred and ninety-six."

SEC. 2. All rights acquired by virtue of instruments or deeds relating to land not registered under Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety-six, issued prior to the date on which this Act takes effect, are hereby reserved.

Approved, March 8, 1919.