115k fisher folk may avail of calamity insurance coverage for free —BFAR

Thousands of fisher folk from several provinces may now avail of free insurance coverage for their fishing gears and aquaculture facilities in the event of devastating calamities, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said Thursday.

In a statement on Thursday, BFAR said the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation will provide insurance coverage for fishing boats, seaweeds and aquaculture facilities that would be damaged by calamities.

PCIC will initially provide insurance coverage for fishing gears for some 115,000 fisher folk in 42 provinces as announced by BFAR in Tacloban City.

Beneficiaries are fisher folk from the following provinces:

BFAR spokesman Nazario Briguera told GMA News Online that the number of beneficiaries will increase as the agency continues to collate the names of fishermen that should be provided with the insurance coverage in the remaining 39 provinces.

The list of beneficiaries is based on the cross-matched BFAR fisher folk database and the Department of Budget and Management's Registry System for Basic Sector in Agriculture.

“This is so far only the initial batch of fisher folk who would be able to get insurance coverage from the PCIC. We are expecting more to benefit from the insurance once the cross matching of the two registries is already done,” BFAR national director Asis Perez said in the statement.

Briguera reminded fisher folk to register with their respective local government units to be listed as a beneficiary.

“We can say that we can achieve our goals in providing full subsidized insurance for our fisher folk. We hope to continue this program in the subsequent years,” PCIC acting senior vice president for regional management group Norman Cajucom said.

PCIC has allocated P1.184 billion for farmers and fisher folk insurance coverage.    

Health insurance

Meanwhile, Briguera revealed that BFAR is also set to give free health insurance coverage for fisher folk before the year ends.

He said the BFAR database is being cross-matched with the National Household Targeting System-Poverty Reduction by the Department of Social Welfare and Development to create a list of beneficiaries.

Once included on the list, the fisherman will be automatically given a PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) number.

BFAR has registered close to 1.2 million fisher folk nationwide, and targets to register 1.6 million fisher folk before the year ends. — LBG, GMA News