The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) is fast-tracking the processing and payment of crop insurance claims of farmers from disaster-stricken provinces to help them get back on track. As of Wednesday, some 43,000 farmers from Typhoon Ompong-affected Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte in Region 1, and Abra, Benguet and Mountain Province from the Cordillera region, have already filed for the insurance claim with the PCIC. Jaime Gomez, head of the marketing and service department of the PCIC 1 (Ilocos), said farmers from these provinces, whose crops were damaged by the typhoon, will receive a maximum of PHP60,000 worth of insurance claim. Gomez said that PCIC will pay the qualified farmer PHP20,000 per hectare of rice or cornfield, depending on the assessed extent of damage. Qualified farmers are those planting on land not more than 3 hectares, he added. “Normally, the processing before the release of the claims takes 20 days. However, since their number is too high, compared to the normal number of claimants, the processing will take two to three months maximum. But we will issue the claims of those we will finish processing earlier than the maximum months,” Gomez said in a forum on Thursday. He disclosed that some 40 farmers from barangays Mangin and Salisay here already received their insurance claims on Wednesday. “Their crops were totally damaged for their plantations were submerged in flood waters for weeks,” Gomez explained. He assured that they are hastening the release of the claims as mandated by the PCIC central office and Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol. “Secretary Piñol told us to fast-track, so that the farmers could replant soon,” Gomez said. PCIC offers free insurance of crops or aquaculture stocks or agriculture machinery to marginal farmers and fishermen through the government premium subsidy but some qualifiers are needed to ensure that the farmer or fisherman is under marginal category, he said. “Fisher folks with a fishpond or fish cage not bigger than 1,000 square meters can qualify for the free insurance, while livestock raisers with not more than 10 cows or carabaos can also avail of the free insurance. Farmers can also insure their machinery but not more than three units and fishermen, their boats, not more than three fishing boats,” he added. Gomez urged marginal farmers, fishermen and livestock raisers in the region, who have not yet availed of the free agricultural insurance from the government, to apply to their respective municipal or city agriculture offices. He said they are conducting information dissemination campaign, as not much of the fisher folks have availed of the insurance. Source - http://ptvnews.ph