State-run insurance firm pays P23M to calamity-hit farmers

CEBU, Philippines - State-owned Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) paid out a total of P23.2 million in insurance claims as of July this year to over 3,000 farmers in Central Visayas affected by previous calamities.

As of end-July, the PCIC distributed indemnity checks worth P23.2 million to 3,295 farmers in Region 7. Indemnity is the compensation for damages or losses.

Aniceto Rebayla, chief at the Claims Adjustment Division of PCIC-7, told The FREEMAN yesterday in an interview that most of these farmers were given free coverage under various government programs such as the provision of insurance to those listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

PCIC's insurance lines include rice, corn, high-value crops, livestock, non-crop agricultural assets and term insurance package.

Rebayla said the amount of checks released in the seven months ending July this year already exceeded the P17.2-million worth of indemnity checks given to farmers in the whole year of 2014.

Rebayla added that farm crop losses compensated from January to July this year reached 2,214 hectares of land, citing official data.

He explained the reported losses were due mostly to the previous typhoons that hit the region in late 2014 and this year.

The ongoing El Niño phenomenon which had also taken toll on farm production accounted less yet for the reported losses that the PCIC-7 had received, Rebayla explained.

He though projected that the regional office could expect reported losses to farm production due to El Niño from its insured farmers in the coming months especially that the state weather bureau had predicted that the hot weather pattern could intensify through the end of the year and early next year.

Moreover the PCIC has said that it has yet to reach more farmers and fisherman in various municipalities in the region to have them insured.

Crescencio V. Deligero Jr., regional manager of PCIC, announced in the same interview that his office is planning to open four more extension offices to reach out to more farmers. These will be in cities of Dumaguete and Bayawan in Negros Oriental, Bogo City in Cebu and Ubay town in Bohol.

Presently, PCIC-7 only has four extension offices in the towns of Dalaguete and Bantayan in Cebu, Tagbilaran City in Bohol and Larena town in Siquijor.

PCIC, a government-run corporation and an agricultural insurer, said that enrollees in its crop-insurance programs have been increasing.  (FREEMAN)