THE country’s top insurance companies yesterday literally pinned the blame on the huge revenue losses they suffered to the decision of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stop the imposition of Highway Patrol Group inter-island shipping clearance for motor vehicles which gave rise to thousands of vehicles stolen in Metro Manila and shipped to Visayas and Mindanao where they were sold thru the use of fraudulent papers.

In a statement, the Association of Insurance Claimsmen, Inc. (AICI) composed of 109 corporations engaged in the non-life insurance business said they fell the brunt of Mrs. Arroyo’s decision because since the stoppage of the issuance of HPG inter-island shipping clearance starting May 11, 2001, car thefts went on the rise as the HPG became powerless in going after vehicles passing through the Philippine Ports Authority.

As a result, insurance firms have to pay for these insured stolen motor vehicles without recovering them over the past 10 years since they have been shipped to different places in Visayas and Mindanao where they were given new identities by car theft syndicates conspiring with rogue Land Transportation Office and police officials.

“Because of the stoppage, the insurance industry in the whole country suffered severe financial losses now amounting to billions of pesos which bled our coffers and was the primary cause of bankruptcy of some insurance companies,” said the president of the AICI, Cleto Obello Jr. of the Standard Insurance Company, Inc.

In a joint resolution, the AICI exhorted President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III to direct the PNP-HPG to resume the imposition of shipment clearance as a requirement in transporting motor vehicles from one island to another within the Philippine archipelago saying it would effectively arrest the presence of stolen motor vehicles being shipped outside of Metro Manila.    Alfred Dalizon