Insurance plan for disaster-prone schools proposed

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Francis Escudero called yesterday on the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to insure school buildings and classrooms in disaster-prone areas, particularly in Quezon province and the Bicol region.

“It is always a sorry state to see our classrooms, which are supposed to be the bastion of knowledge of our children, go down with the flood and other perils,” he said.

“Most of the time, repair and rebuild has not started yet and here comes another disaster. With this program, we just want to ensure that an immediate contingency plan will be in effect when disaster strikes,” he added.

Escudero’s office identified 25,890 classrooms in Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, and Eastern Visayas as possible beneficiaries of insurance against fire and lightning, typhoon and floods, earthquake, and extended cover like volcanic eruption, tsunami, landslide, riot and civil commotion, and aircraft and vehicle impact.

As proposed, the insurance premium will be paid based on a funding mechanism prepared by Escudero’s office wherein each school in Bicol and Quezon would be provided with a policy drawn up by GSIS.

In a meeting, however, the GSIS asked Escudero and his staff to conduct an inspection first on the school buildings in the identified areas to determine their real value before they can issue the insurance policy.

Escudero asked the GSIS to fast-track the details of the cover for each school.

“It will come in an understandable manual, which will be provided to the principals of each school,” he said. – Christina Mendez