Cebu’s insurance firms and agents  seek ouster of commissioner

Insurance companies and agents in Cebu have formed a coalition that intensified calls on the government to remove Commissioner Evangeline Escobillo from her post in the Insurance Commission.

The coalition, in a meeting and later a press conference at the Mango Park Hotel yesterday, said it had agreed to file at the Regional Trial Court a complaint against Escobillo, coupled by a series of protest actions against her.

The group, led by insurance manager Reymar Mansilungan, would also push for the ouster of Escobillo due to her alleged corrupt practices in the commission.

Mansilungan, in an press conference, accused Escobillo of concentrating in the removal of small insurance companies that sell Compulsory Third Party Liability insurance products, instead of creating a consortium to handle solely the CTPL business.

He said that Escobillo’s thrust of requiring these companies to raise their minimum capitalization was a drastic one that smaller companies could not readily comply in a very short time.

As a result, the removal of companies that failed to comply with the minimum capital requirement only displaced thousands of insurance agents, said Mansilungan.

Escobillo is reportedly facing two graft cases at the Office of the Ombudsman, one of which was filed by Mansilungan himself accusing the commissioner of violation of the Insurance Code.

The other case was filed by Zenaida Maranan, president of Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines.

Escobillo, for her part, welcomed the complaints saying that the allegations were the works of individuals objecting to the reforms and changes she had introduced in the commission. — Jasmin R. Uy/RAE