“There is no corruption if there are no corruptors.”
This was the statement made by former Land Transportation Office chief Alberto Suansing in response to a group of non-life insurance companies who asked the incoming administration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterteto to clean up the LTO of corrupt officials.
Suansing, who served as chief of LTO and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board during the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, urged the insurance industry players to cleanse their ranks.
Suansing, currently the secretary general of the Philippine Global Road Safety Partnership, said in a statement the compulsory third-party liability insurance program for motor vehicles became a source of corruption and was taken advantage by unscrupulous insurance companies and agents.
The Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association earlier urged Duterte and incoming Transportation secretary Arturo Tugade to “search and destroy the minority of corrupt officials in the LTO victimizing the motorists.”
Pira claimed that millions of motorists would benefit if Duterte and Tugade would fire the minority of errant officials at LTO who were behind the overpricing of the third-party liability insurance.
Suansing said major reforms on CTPL insurance program could have been implemented by the outgoing LTO leadership if it had not been stalled by a temporary restraining order filed by some insurance companies that opposed the otherwise “ideal and appropriate” solutions to it.
“The practice of over-pricing and non-payment of claims could have been eliminated and checked with the implementation of the RCTPL or reformed compulsory third party liability program introduced by LTO late last year, but continued opposition of several non-life insurance groups has stalled the said program,” Suansing said.
Suansing said the RCTPL program would involve all bona fide insurance industry players and called on the insurance industry to cooperate and participate in the reform programs of the agency to help benefit the larger majority of the motoring public.
The RCTPL program which was issued a permanent injunction by a Makati court last month provides a mechanism to streamline the issuance, processing and settlement of claims under the CTPL insurance required by law for vehicle registration.
“Motor vehicle owners are still at the mercy of ‘fixer’ agents and unscrupulous insurers who connive to overprice the CTPL COCs sold to unsuspecting car owners, drivers,” Suansing said.
“Meanwhile the lack of monitoring and verification process has encouraged the proliferation of unscrupulous insurance companies that issues spurious or undeclared COCs to the detriment of the insuring public,” he said.