271059/271347/E-02472/E-04036 Concurring Opinion: Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo — Official PDF

Concurring Opinion 11 G.R. Nos. 271059, 271347, E-02472, and E-04036 difference in the level of Unprogrammed Appropriations in the House and Senate versions of the bill."38 The power of the Bicameral Conference Committee to introduce amendments in the proposed bills of Congress has long been settled in the case of Tolentino v. Secretary ofFinance,39 to wit: Indeed, this Court recently held that it is within the power of a conference committee to include in its report an entirely new provision that is not found either in the House bill or in the Senate bill. If the committee can propose an amendment consisting of one or two provisions, there is no reason why it cannot propose several provisions, collectively considered as an "amendment in the nature of a substitute," so long as such amendment is germane to the subject of the bills before the committee. After all, its report . was not final but needed the approval of both house~ of Congress to become valid as an act of the legislative department. The charge that in this case the Conference Committee acted as a third legislative chamber is thus without any basis.40 (Citations omitted) Verily, this ruling in Tolentino affirmed the Court's earlier pronouncement in The Philippine Judges Association v. Prado41 recognizing that the Bicameral Conference Committee has a broader function than merely reconciling the differences in the provisions of the versions of the House and the Senate, to wit: The petitioners also invoke [Section] 74 of the Rules of the House of Representatives, requiring that amendment to any bill when the House and the Senate shall have differences thereon may be settled by a conference committee of both chambers. They stress that [Section] 3 5 was never a subject of any disagreement between both Houses and so the second paragraph could not have been validly added as an amendment. These arguments are unacceptable. While it is true that a conference committee is the mechanism for compromising differences between the Senate and the House, it is not limited in its jurisdiction to this question. Its broader function is described thus: A conference committee may, deal generally with the subject matter or it may be limited to resolving the precise differences between the two houses. Even where the conference committee is not by rule limited in its 38 Id. at 20. 39 305 Phil. 686 (1994) [Per J. Mendoza, En Banc]. 40 Id. at 748. 41 298 Phil. 502 (1993) [Per J. Cruz, En Banc].