MANILA, Philippines ? Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. wants the Insurance law amended to cover ?acts of God? in comprehensive insurance policies of car owners.

Pimentel made the proposal on Friday as he assailed the ?strict but deceptive ?policy of insurance companies when they refused to indemnify owners of motor vehicles damaged or destroyed by typhoons as they were ?acts of God? and beyond the scope of the insurance plan.

He was convinced that insurance firms have been deliberately using the ?acts of God? provision of the law ?to evade payments, leaving the car owners? insurance useless to protect them from such contingency.?

?What is the use of having a comprehensive insurance policy, which applies even to car theft but excludes so-called acts of God like floods?? asked the senator.

?I find that a little unfair. And it looks like we have been had because in the United States, if you say comprehensive insurance, that includes all contingencies. There is no reference to acts God as exceptions,? he said.

Pimentel said, ?Perhaps we have to revisit the insurance policies that are issued in this country, comprehensive but does not cover so-called acts of God. What kind of comprehensive insurance would that be if one?s car, for example, gets destroyed because there was flooding and they call it an act of God??

What makes the reasoning of insurance firms ?invalid and unacceptable,? the senator said, was the fact that the widespread heavy flooding in Metro Manila and nearby provinces was due partly to man-made causes.

?In other words, the non-cleaning of drainages, the precipitate opening of the dams these are acts of men, not of God. Why do we blame God for the things that we are doing in this country? This is something that defies imagination,? he said.

He said the hapless car owners could not compel the insurance firms to pay up unless somebody will try to fight it out in the courts.

But the ultimate remedy to this problem, Pimentel said, would be to amend the law to remove its ?act of God? provision.