Senate bill urged insurance firms to pay for losses due to “Acts of God”
Posted on January 21st, 2010
Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. filed Senate Bill 3966 which is aimed in amending the Insurance Code in the Philippines. Pimentel believe that insurance firms should be compulsorily required to indemnify owner of motor vehicles that have been damaged or destroyed by floods, landslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
With SB 3966, Pimentel would like to ensure that car owners who are holders of comprehensive motor vehicle insurance policy are automatically compensated if their vehicles are wrecked by natural disasters.
“This bill will do away with the malpractice of insurance firms of refusing to compensate holders of comprehensive motor vehicle insurance policy on the ground that the natural disasters are acts of God that are beyond the ambit of the policy,” he said.
The senator filed the bill as an aftermath of the effect of storms Ondoy and Pepeng which hit the country last year. Many motor vehicles were swept and inundated by floods and landslides, leaving most of them damaged and many, beyond repair. The owners of these damaged vehicles immediately filed claims from their insurance companies.
“It is, however, unfortunate that insurance companies deliberately resort to ‘acts of God’ clause in insurance policy to avoid payment of claims, leaving the comprehensive insurance policy holders helpless in the midst of enormous losses,” Pimentel said.
The senator said it is unfair to the car owners who religiously pay their insurance premiums only to find themselves empty-handed when they file their claims because of the deceptive policy of insurance firms or refusing to honor such insurance claims.
Under SB 3966, it is provided that “in case of a comprehensive motor vehicle insurance, no policy shall be issued and delivered in the Philippines unless it contains in substance the provision that comprehensive motor vehicle insurance shall cover all fortuitous events, such as floods, landslides, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other related natural calamities, or indirectly, proximately or remotely occasioned by, contributed to or traceable to, arising out of, or in connection with the aforementioned natural events.”
