Insurers intensify call for microinsurance after ‘Juan’

Insurers intensify call for microinsurance after ‘Juan’
GMANews.TV
GMANews.TV - Monday, October 25

In the aftermath of typhoon Juan (international code: Megi) which devastated northern Luzon last week, insurers have intensified the call for farmers to buy microinsurance.

“Nature has once again reminded all us of the importance of being insured. Last year, it was typhoon Ondoy that flooded cars and houses. Now, it’s typhoon Juan that devastated farm lands," Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA) chairman Michael Rellosa said this weekend.

“We really need to develop microinsurance — or insurance for the poor and marginalized — to protect our poor countrymen who are exposed to various risks, including natural calamities," Rellosa said in an interview.

He pointed out that some local insurance companies are now developing products for farmers.

An example is the crop insurance of one company that insures the capital used by the farmer in planting his field, Rellosa said.

The insurance company will indemnify the farmer for the capital he used should the area be declared under a state of calamity, he added.

Rellosa said microinsurance is still confronting several challenges in areas of distribution, claims handling, and the lack of insurance literacy among the poor. “Right now, majority of our countrymen view insurance as an added expense when they should consider it as an investment and as a tool to manage the risks that they cannot handle. We need to educate them," he said.

Promoting security

Meanwhile, PIRA has partnered again with the Philippine Insurers Club (PIC) for the Insurance Consciousness Week (ICW), starting Oct. 26-30, 2010, that carries the theme “Promoting Security and Stability through Insurance Awareness."

The week will start with a thanksgiving mass at the Insurance Commission and dialogues with marginalized sectors on their perception of insurance and how the industry can appreciate insurance better, said PIC president Leticia Pagharion.

Charity works have also been lined up, she said.

The ICW will end in Davao City, with the Davao Insurers Club expounding on how people from Mindanao could appreciate insurance, Pagharion added.

Aside from the ICW and the Micro Insurance Conference, PIRA is also co-hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) Insurance Council meetings of insurance regulators and industry leaders from Southeast Asia, she said.

Pagharion said the association is also backing the Young Asean Managers Awards which recognize the promising future leaders of the region.

“We can therefore say that in the four weeks that will follow, all eyes of the insurance industry in the region will be focused on the Philippines. It is PIRA’s privilege to be given this opportunity," Rellosa said. — JE/VS, GMANEws.TV