ON its second year of hosting a multistakeholder disaster resilience forum, Cebuana Lhuillier on Wednesday again emphasized the role of microinsurance coverage in preparing Filipinos for both natural and man-made calamities.
The forum was organized in partnership with the Insurance Commission (IC), the Climate Change Commission and international development organization Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbe (GIZ). Entitled “2017 READY-All Sectors In: Making Everyone Disaster-Resilient”, the focus was on farmers and fishermen, sectors described as being the most vulnerable when disaster strikes, therefore the sectors that would benefit most from microinsurance coverage.
The forum was held in a Makati City hotel.
Cebuana Lhuiller President and CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier stated in his opening address that in the past two decades, natural calamities and disasters “affected the lives of millions and impacted 80 percent of the local economy”.
“To live with the effects of these natural disasters has become the ‘new normal’ to many Filipinos. We at Cebuana Lhuillier, together with our partners—the Insurance Commission, the Climate Change Commission and GIZ—believe that now, more than ever, is the best time to work together to formulate strategies that will help us inform, empower and protect millions of Filipinos against the continuous onslaught of natural disasters,” he said.
Microinsurance as a type of coverage geared toward low-income households that has premiums within the minimum-wage worker’s reach was cited by various speakers in the forum as something that can address the immediate need of ordinary households in the aftermath of disaster.
In his speech, IC Acting Division Manager for Microinsurance Jose Paulo Roxas lamented the fact that microinsurance coverage dropped by 6.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the end of last year. He said around 28 million Filipinos were covered as of year-end 2016, while only around 26.6 million as of the first quarter this year. He said, however, the IC looks forward to raising this number toward the year’s last half.
“We are quite optimistic that it will still increase before the year ends. Hopefully, we can cover at least 31 million lives,” he added.
He explained that, first and foremost, Filipinos have to be more aware that microinsurance as a product exists and has, in fact, been available in the local market since 2010. This way, microinsurance penetration in the country could improve from its current low levels.
Roxas said the IC continues to conduct information drives and education campaigns about microinsurance.
Cebuana Lhuillier, for its part, offers microinsurance programs, like NegosyoCare, which is geared toward protecting micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from damages to property caused by fire, typhoon and flood, and even burglary and robbery.
By targeting agricultural MSMEs, along with other vulnerable enterprises, Cebuana Lhuillier and its partners and allies in advocating disaster preparedness hope to reduce the impact of calamity onslaught in the country, as records from the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council still show major gaps in the country’s disaster preparedness. For instance, in 2014 and 2015, the local agriculture sector alone suffered a loss of P60-billion due to tropical cyclones. Very recently, Supertyphoon Lawin left agricultural damages estimated at P18.4 billion. These are numbers that microinsurance advocates hope to shrink.