PHILIPPINES INSURERS URGE INTERIM SOLUTION TO MOTOR CRISIS

Insurers in the Philippines have urged the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to join with them in an interim solution to the current mandatory motor insurance crisis. Pira, the Philippines Insurers and Reinsurers Assocition, asked the GSIS to join the authentication and verification system being used by the Land Transportation Office. The GSIS is the “one insurance provider” referred to under a recent government order that integrates the third-party motor insurance system into the Land Transportation Office registration process. The move, part of an original programme to reduce third-party motor insurance fraud, has been called unconstitutional by Pira, which called it nationalisation by the back door. Pira said that its proposed temporary solution would ensure the authenticity of third-party liability policies while a more permanent solution was developed. Under the proposed stop-grap solution, only companies that had a valid licence from the Insurance Commission would be allowed to issue third-party motor policies. When a vehicle is registered, the insurance would be checked by a computer set up by Pira. The registration would then be sent to Stradcom, the computer system of the Land Transportation Office, to check that the record of the vehicle is valid. The insurance policy number would be included in the vehicle record. Previously, one third-party policy was often sold again and again to several vehicle owners.