Insurance woes

Motorists whose motor vehicles were damaged by storm Ondoy decry the non-payment of their losses by insurance companies. There are thousands of these victims who paid for insurance policies upon registration of their motor vehicles with the Land Transportation Office, a good many paying only Third Party Liability, meaning their insurance coverage is only for the payment of hospital/medical expenses incurred by third parties in accidents, but not for damage to their vehicles. Those who buy comprehensive insurance policies are supposed to be assured of indemnification for deaths and/or physical disabilities of parties (including the driver of the motor vehicle) in accidents, expenses incurred for vehicle repairs or vehicle replacement, and upon theft of their vehicle.

Vehicle owners who lost their cars, trucks, vans, etc., or who have to pay great amounts for their repair due to Ondoy, have found out that they are not to be paid for their losses by insurance companies. Motorists who paid comprehensive policies or only third party liability can’t claim insurance coverage on the ground that Ondoy falls under the classification of “acts of God.”

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) assailed this “strict but deceptive policy” of insurance companies. This policy, he said, is “potently prejudicial to the interest of car owners.” What is the use of having a comprehensive insurance applied even to car theft but excludes so-called acts of God like floods, he asked. In the United States, he said, “comprehensive insurance includes all contingencies, and there is no reference to acts of God as exceptions.”

What makes the reasoning of insurance firms invalid and unacceptable (is) the fact that the widespread heavy flooding in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, he said, was “not an act of God, but acts of men.”

Pimentel said the hapless car owners could not compel the insurance firms to pay up unless somebody will try to fight it out in the courts.

“The ultimate remedy would be for an amendment of the Insurance Law which will not allow such ‘act of God’ provision to be inserted in certain insurance policies,” he said.

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One of my favorite senators, Richard Gordon, has not been campaigning for the presidential election of 2010 these past days. Rather he has been busy attending to flood victims, not only in Metro Manila, but in Luzon, and the Visayas and Mindanao, wherever calamities have occurred.

As chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, Dick has led other PNRC officials and delegates from the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) in accepting a planeload of donations worth P25 million from other Red Cross societies abroad last week at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The goods consisted of hygiene sets which contained body and laundry soaps, toothpaste, toothbrush, sanitary pads, toilet papers among others, and kitchen sets containing cooking pots, frying pans, metallic bowls and plates, etc.

Donations and assistance from other international communities have started to pour in, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC of which Dick is a governor), the People’s Republic of China, the United States government, Lee Soo Young, chairman and chief executive officer of OCI Company Lt., Korea, coursed through Korean ambassador Choi Joong Kung, and the Singaporean government, coursed through Singaporean Ambassador A. Selverajah. McDonalds, through its Manila-based president Kenneth Young, handed $25,000, and McDonald’s from South Africa $30,000 to Dick.

One can cry hearing stories of giving and sharing.

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Help continues to flow to evacuation centers overflowing with victims who have lost their homes and worldly belongings and have to depend on donations of food, clothes and blankets to keep warm and not hungry. Whatever they can do to help alleviate the plight of the victims has been the cry of many organizations from abroad, and locally.

One of these organizations is the Upsilon Sigma Phi and Sigma Delta Phi Batch 1969 Foundation Inc., which decided to cancel the foundation’s 40th anniversary golf tournament scheduled for October 9 at the South Forbes Golf and Country Club. Instead, it is donating the money allocated for the tournament to the victims of Ondoy.

The celebration was also intended to serve as an occasion for raising funds for the foundation’s ongoing scholarship program. Part of the funds already raised is going to a program to benefit indigent students of the UP in Diliman, Quezon City, and in Los Baños, Laguna. Chairman of Batch ’69 is public relations man Willie Fernandez.

By special request, the sponsors who have contributed to the Batch ’69 fund include STRADCOM, Century Peak Corporation, Duty Free Philippines, GSIS, DOE, Monheim Group of Companies, NAIA, Senators Juan Ponce-Enrile, Loren Legarda, Manny Villar, Edgardo Angara, Rodolfo Biazon, and Aquilino Pimentel Jr.; Congressmen Jing Paras, Ed Zialcita, Amado Bagatsing, and Noli Fuentebella; former Congressman Bebot Alvarez, Boy Leonio, Dan Villanueva, Leads Environmental Health, Dr. Ipe Gonzales, former Senator Frank Drilon, SM’s Henry Sy, GENESIS Transport Services, First Life Financial Company, Inc., Moonbay Marina, Winace Holdings Philippines, Inc., St. Luke’s Medical Center, Goldtech International Distributors Inc., Leads Agri Products Corp, PLDT, Smart Communications, and Golfers Club Shares Inc.

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Schools, big and small, have been mobilizing students and students’ resources to give their share to alleviating the plight of victims in evacuation centers. Among them is Pasig Christian Academy, whose young alumni carry small and big bags of goodies to be given to victims from different barangays in the city. A mother of one of the boys packed a bag of canton noodles, and the boy said, “Mom, they don’t do any cooking in the evacuation center.” At this, the mother replaced the noodles with cans of sardines.

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