In a meeting initiated by the Automobile Association of the Philippines (AAP) and the Economic Police Reform & Advocacy of Ateneo de Manila, the first CTPL Forum was held last week at the Holiday Inn Galleria in Ortigas Center. The Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA) and the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) presented their solutions to the worsening problems hounding the CTPL.

The PIRA and the GSIS have been wrestling to take control of the P3-billion CTPL business covering some 5.5 million registered vehicles in the country.

Under the GSIS proposal, its president Antonio Resurreccion said that their agency will enter into an agreement with the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for the "automatic inclusion" of the CTPL cover on the vehicle registration process thru the Stradcom Corporation computer system of LTO.

The Stradcom Corporation is a private entity involved in the government information system projects that is also in charge of the LTO Information Technology network.

GSIS officials said that necessary systems modification in the computer network will incorporate compulsory insurance to the LTO vehicle registration. The GSIS will be interconnected with the LTO with provisions for uploading of relevant data of insurance vehicles for purposes of monitoring enrollments and processing claims.

GSIS authorities said their proposal will ensure public accountability; simplify the processing of claims for accidents; improve efficiency and order; stop connivance of LTO personnel with syndicates peddling fake CTPL insurance policies and fake certificates of coverage; and ensure payment of taxes on policies to the government.

On the other hand, PIRA is batting for the establishment of a clearing house using modern information technology system. Under their proposal, the vehicle owners will still have the freedom to choose among their 90 insurance companies who are members of the clearing house.

If unsatisfied with services of their existing insurance company, PIRA said that the vehicle owner can easily change their insurance company.

PIRA explained that under their proposal, the vehicle owner buying a CTPL policy will have to go to an insurance agent whose company is a member of the PIRA. The agent will bring the CTPL certificate of cover to the Clearing House inside the LTO which will later check if the insurance company that issued the document was authorized to issue certificates.

The Clearing House will also check if the right premium and taxes were paid before debiting the premium from the money the insurance company has "parked" in the system.

The Clearing House will later transmit the information to the Insurance Commission and to the LTO and tally them with their system which will be Internet based.

There are presently about 10,000 insurance agents working in various PIRA-member companies and they are opposing the proposed take over of the GSIS on the CTPL business.

PIRA employees said that to allow the GSIS to take control of the CTPL business will only contradict the government’s effort to privatize transactions in pursuit of the principle of free enterprise.

Evangeline Crisostomo-Escobillo of the Insurance Commission also expressed her opposition to the GSIS proposal, adding that it will only result in a monopoly of the CTPL industry by a single government agency.

Meanwhile, AAP executive director Mandy Eduque also pushed for the preservation of the existing CTPL insurance agency or PIRA because the GSIS has its hands full in dealing with the pension of fund of retirees from the government. "The AAP prefers a private solution to the problem," he said.

And instead of quarreling over the control of the CTPL business, Eduque also called on the sectors involved in the industry to address the problem of proliferation of fake insurance policies which have become institutionalized during the past years.