An innovative risk insurance the government has availed of could unlock at least P2.3 billion in partial payouts for provinces hit hard by Typhoon Tisoy, without the hassles of time-consuming field verification by insurance adjusters.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, House Ways and Means Committee chair whose office had helped tabulate data for the claims, said Bicol, the most ravaged by the recent calamity, could get an immediate P740 million partial payout, equivalent to 40 percent of its assessed damage, and possibly up to P1.9 billion on a ‘full trigger’ basis.
“It took all of ten days for the calculation of the insurance company to reach the trigger for partial payout of P163 million for Albay. Insco will pay the funds to the National Treasury which in turn would release the funds to the covered provinces,” said Salceda.
A ‘coverage trigger’ is the event that must occur before a particular liability policy applies to a given loss. Under an occurrence policy, the damage brought by Tisoy is the trigger and liability will be covered under that policy if the injury or damage occurred during the policy period.
Salceda said the payout provided immediate funding for rehabilitation to avoid the liquidity trap suffered by many communities waiting for the long processing to be completed.
His Albay home province has already been ‘triggered’ to get P163.27 million in partial payout from the Parametric Risk Insurance coverage, which could reach P408.17 million on a full trigger.