A good look at your insurance policy

Much has been written about tropical storm Ondoy. To be sure, this has got to be the biggest calamity we have suffered as a nation in several decades. But then again, we have not seen so much positive response from our more fortunate brethren. Even those who have suffered much have given anyway, if not in material things, at least in time, effort and prayers.

Many of the provinces which were not affected by Ondoy sent in relief goods. Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PCCI) president Ed Lacson told us that one sympathetic province in the North sent a substantial shipment of rice to Metro Manila as aid, only to be ravaged by Pepeng only a few days later. Now the PCCI is mulling the return of the rice shipment to the very same province because of the dire devastation the province has suffered. If we weren’t talking of lives and property lost, this story would have been funny.

Watching the videos on television makes one wonder how this devastation so vast could happen right under our noses. The National Capital Region has never been so devastated, with only one day’s worth of rain. All those lives and property lost is mind-boggling.

When we saw all those cars piled atop each other, many mired in mud and twisted, we silently hoped that the vehicle could recoup some of their losses through insurance. We talked with executives in the insurance industry and found out that, sadly, only a small percentage of these vehicles actually had ‘Acts of God’ (AOG) coverage.

Years back, vehicle insurance coverage only entailed third party liability and on-damage cover. These form the standard coverage required for vehicles to be registered. Some three or four years ago, some of the major players in the industry came up with the novel idea of including ‘Acts of God’ in the coverage, the idea conceived in the spirit of competition which today remains very strong and fierce in the industry.

As expected, very few availed of it. Filipinos are notorious for not buying enough insurance. Or maybe it all boils down to economics. Since the motor car is considered a tariff line, the insurance rate that covers it is a fixed rate. For AOG cover, the maximum premium that can be tacked on is 0.98 percent, so if your vehicle is worth P1 million, the additional premium for AOG alone is P9,800 per year. But for second-hand cars, it could be worth considering for those penny-pinching-a P300,000 car would only be charged a maximum of P3,000/year premium, and only if you are considered a high risk (ex: you are leaving in a low-lying area notorious for floods). Otherwise, this premium rate could even go down.

But for most, this could be a hefty sum. According to one of the leading vehicle insurers in the country, Prudential Guarantee, only about 15 percent of their clients opted to avail of this additional cover, in a population of about 60,000 motor cars insured. Of course, not all of those in the lucky 15 percent were even touched by Ondoy, but you will be surprised by how many were. The morning after Ondoy, the insurance company received calls from as many as 300 vehicle owners claiming damages from the flood. Several more called after that.

The claims would have been adequate to cover the losses. Usually, it is the ‘computer box’ that is badly damaged if submerged in water for long periods. These computer boxes cost upwards of P45K per, so they don’t come cheap. Anyway, from experts we gather that there is still a chance of recovering your computer box, as long as you don’t start your engine and allow everything in the vehicle to be bone-dry before you even attempt to try the ignition. Disconnect the batter immediately and just leave the car alone to drip-dry, which could take several days.

For claims on Acts of God coverage, you can recover the cost of repair less the standard deductibles that you will find in your certificate of cover. All told, the amount you will recover is easily commensurate to the premium you have paid.

It’s ‘panic-helping’!

Putting the entire nation under a state of calamity protects the consumers in times of dire straits like where we are now. Stretching it for a full year is also stretching the imagination, but we hope that with the price freeze in force, the racketeers and opportunists will be forced to tow the line.

For a while there, the supermarket shelves were mostly empty. When my wife Babes, who spearheaded the relief drive among our co-players in Valle Verde Country Club, went to buy some goods, she was pleasantly surprised to find that so many others have beaten her to the punch. It was clearly not panic-buying as Ondoy has cleared the Philippine area of responsibility at least two days before. It was a clear case of Filipinos wanting to share and help ease the burden of our less fortunate kababayans. Noodles were no longer available, and she said she couldn’t buy sardines by the box. She had to scrounge for empty boxes and fill them up with the loose cans on the shelves.

The Philippine Amalgamated Groceries Association or Pagasa through their very affable president Steven Cua says that supplies have normalized since then, and assures the public that prices have also remain stable, at least among their members, some of whom were victims themselves of Ondoy. Supermarkets with warehouses in Libis and SLEX have suffered losses in the millions. Mostly, they were able to salvage only their canned goods which, even with damaged labels, can still be sold.

The Dept. of Trade & Industry (DTI) has been enforcing the price ceilings very effectively and has dispatched 150 teams to make sure the price freeze is strictly enforced. So far, they have caught 50 erring store owners, according to DTI’s U-Sec Zenaida Maglaya. The penalty for profiteering ranges from imprisonment of up to 10 years to fines of up to P1 million.Call DTI’s 24-hour hotline for complaints for overpriced basic commodities: 751-3330.

How do they monitor these? They require the establishment owner to have their documents ready at all times for inspection. All current prices of commodities should be exactly the same before Ondoy struck. The same goes for essential medicines which are on the list.

Basic commodities include rice, milk, sugar, coffee, instant noodles, sardines and, of late, bread and soy sauce have been included.

Don’t wait for the bandwagon to get filled up

The country’s real estate sector is again presently facing challenging times. And it’s all part of the historical peaks and valleys that most industries experience.

But those who believe in the old adage, which has been proven right time and again, “buy when the chips are down” should probably start making their moves to get in before it gets any better again. Joining the bandwagon late is a “Johnny come lately” making do with the morsels.

Asia-Pacific Realty Holdings are again holding seminars and workshops for those interested to join the country’s most dynamic realty brokerage company that has in its portfolio the widest array of property development projects spanning a wide spectrum of economic classes-”a property for any kind of budget”.

If you’re interested just call Fe at telephone number 571-1928.

People in real estate “legally get rich quick”. Don’t wait for it to peak again before coming in.

No, you don’t put a good man down

Though Muntinlupa has been badly hit, the rest of the cities in the South were thankfully spared. Parañaque, though inundated like the rest, was not so bad. Still, our energetic Mayor Jun Bernabe was very visible immediately after the rains, wading through flooded areas, checking on his constituents and distributing relief goods to the impoverished areas. The city has not had it this good in so long, and the residents of Parañaque can only thank the kind mayor for his untiring efforts at cleaning up the garbage, painting all the sidewalks so they appear neat, lighting up the entire city to discourage nocturnal crimes, putting up maternal lying-in clinics for indigent mothers and making the police very visible at night.

Keep up the good work Mayor Jun.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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