Update: The Lifetime Cellphone Number Act bill is now RA 11202 or The Mobile Number Portability Act.
Senator Gatchalian announces the approval of the bicameral conference committee report on the bill providing consumers the privilege of using a permanent mobile phone number or the Lifetime Cellphone Number Act.
The Bill is expected to be ratified early next month.
In a bicameral system, bills are independently processed by both houses of Congress, meaning the house of representatives and the Senate.
It is not unusual that the final version approved by one house differs from what has been approved by the other.
The “conference committee”, consisting of members nominated from both houses, is an extra-constitutional creation of Congress whose function is to propose to Congress ways of reconciling conflicting provisions found in the Senate version and in the house version of a bill.