Duterte creates committee to make sure gov’t properties are insured

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (File photo by BULLIT MARQUEZ / AP)

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the creation a temporary Inter-Agency Committee on Government Property Insurance mandated to regulate properties, assets, and insurable interests of the government.

Duterte signed on Monday Administrative Order No. 4, which instructed the Inter-Agency Committee to create monitoring and reporting mechanisms to insure all government properties.

“There is a need to prescribe the necessary policies, rules, and regulations to ensure that the key properties, assets and other interests of the government, especially the high-risk items, are provided with comprehensive and adequate insurance coverage,” the order explains.

The order also instructs all the government agencies involved to review all government property and determine which properties should be insured annually.

The committee will be chaired by the Department of Finance and co-chaired by Office of the Executive Secretary.

Other members of the committee include the heads of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Insurance Commission, and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

The committee was also ordered to propose necessary and appropriate “legislative measure or executive issuances” regarding insuring key government properties, assets, facilities and other insurable interests.

The committee is also required to submit a terminal report to Duterte after a year it has convened and will be disbanded after that. –Airei Kim Guanga, trainee /atm