The Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) has released some P347 million to help rebuild the lives and livelihoods of insured farmers and fisherfolk who have been heavily affected by extreme weather disturbances that hit the country recently.

The payment represents the initial payment on the P1.5 billion-worth of estimated damages reported by PCIC’s clients in PCIC’s seven administrative regions.

The balance is in various stages of processing and will be released within 10 days following the completion of the required documents.

Damages were reported by around 121,000 insured farmers and fisherfolk whose standing rice, corn, high-value crops, livestock holdings, fisheries, and other assets supporting their operations were affected.

PCIC is under strict orders from Agriculture Secretary William Dar to quickly undertake verification and adjustment activities and release the indemnity funds accordingly.

PCIC is the country’s only agricultural insurance firm. It is state-owned and operates as an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture.

It has been attending to the needs of farmers and fisherfolk that have been impacted by various adverse geological and climate events this year.

These include the Taal Volcano eruption in January and the series of typhoons in the past few months, namely Pepito, Quinta, Rolly, and Ulysses, that came with either extra-ordinary wind strength or unusual volume of rain that have caused severe flooding. ###