The country’s nonlife insurers cried foul on Wednesday over what they claim as “malicious” and “unfounded” accusations hurled by an administration lawmaker on alleged anomalies involving motor-vehicle insurance.
In an interview, Michael Rellosa, chairman of the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (Pira), said Liberal Party Rep. Winston Castelo of Quezon City committed a serious mistake by accusing the insurance industry of selling spurious insurance policies, delayed or nonpayment of claims and predatory pricing of insurance premiums.
“These are all false,” said Rellosa, who challenged Castelo to substantiate his allegations with concrete proof as they tarnish the image of the country’s insurance industry, which has long ago proposed and adopted measures to address these resurrected issues.
Rellosa said the 69 member-companies belonging to Pira all follow the rules set forth by the Insurance Commission when it comes to the issuance of insurance policies, payment of claims, pricing of insurance premiums and paying taxes.
It is also willing and able to show proof that it does pay tax, as the Pira system ensures a one to one correspondence between vehicle and insurance policy, uniform premium rates per type of vehicle and where taxes are even set aside before the actual policy is issued.
Such are then paid by an independent third party accredited by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and sent on to the government coffers.
“The Insurance Commission [IC] is very strict and Congressman Castelo himself could check with the IC how many complaints they have received from the general public on the areas he mentioned. It is unfair for him to come up with such accusations without any proof whatsoever,” he said.
“We are challenging Congressman Castelo to substantiate his allegations because what he is doing is damaging to the entire insurance industry.”
Rellosa added that Castelo is putting the insurance industry in a bad light just to push for the approval of a new “money-making scheme” being proposed by the Land Transportation Office called “Reformed Compulsory Third-Party Liability [CTPL]” insurance, an alleged cartelized monopoly that will limit the business of motor-car insurance to a select group of insurance companies.
“We have aired our strong opposition to this so-called Reformed CTPL since it is a clear violation of the Insurance Code and is detrimental to the interest of insurance agents and general public,” he said. “The good congressman should rethink his position and not mislead the public just to push for a personal agenda,” Rellosa added.