The Insurance Commission had directed all insurance and reinsurance companies, mutual-benefit associations, preneed companies and their respective umbrella organizations to make an assessment of the losses and damage caused by Typhoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit) last week.
Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc issued an advisory directing the entities under its supervision to come up with an estimate of the possible amount of claims against them.
The said companies are also
directed to install an efficient system of handling and processing claims for the typhoon-affected areas in the Visayas and Bicol regions.
“Insurance/reinsurance companies, mutual-benefit associations and preneed companies shall submit their company data on losses and settlements made, if any, to their respective association heads or secretariat, copy furnished this commission,” the advisory said.
The advisory was issued to help those affected by Typhoon Ruby get back to normalcy through the speedy payment of their claims.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has pegged the total damage to property due to Typhoon Ruby at $75 million.
Earlier, the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (Pira) said that less than 20 percent of Filipinos have some form of risk cover.
For Filipinos in the rural areas, the estimate of uninsured individuals is even less, at more or less 5 percent.
Pira said Filipinos do not have anything to cling on to when disasters strike, unlike the Japanese, for instance, where the greater number of its population is protected by an insurance policy.
This was why the Japanese people would readily evacuate calamity-stricken places, when authorities tell them to because life and property are often
insured.