Ranada seeks early promulgation of Pre-need rules

MANILA, March 8 (PNA) -- The pre-need industry cannot tarry any longer and will have to observe the limits set in the draft implementing rules and regulations of the Pre Need Code, the Insurance Commission said.

Newly installed Insurance Commission chief Santiago Ranada on Friday said he wanted a quick promulgation and enforcement of the IRR.

Ranada said the industry did not have the luxury of time while the pre need consuming public is exposed, unprotected, by the lack of guidelines.

He said he was asked by the Philippine Federation of Pre-need Plan Companies Inc., or PFPPCI, to delay the promulgation process by about a week but turned them down as the consultation process already expired on March 2 this year.

Ranada said the consultative process has dragged on for very long already and thus it was time that the larger interest of the consuming public should amply be covered as well.

“If there are kinks in the draft rules we can always amend it on the run. This can only be discovered if the IRR is tried out,” Ranada, former Court of Appeals Justice, said.

Ranada was guest of honor at the 29th Anniversary and Awards Night honoring the work done the past year by the sales forces of Eternal Plans Inc. on Friday.

He cited EPI’s lead role in an industry recently hobbled by the global financial turbulence and the “mistakes and mismanagement of a few (players that) created a sense of instability and uncertainty affecting the rest of the preneed industry.”

“I believe that what you, the preneed companies, have just gone through is a winnowing process where only the healthiest and the fittest survive. Eternal Plans should be proud that in this drive to prevail and overcome you lead among the survivors,” Ranada said.

Changes in accounting rules, the global financial downturn, the need for some to recapitalize and other reform measures have reduced the number of preneed companies from 30 in the recent past to only 19 at present, according to Ranada.

“As leader in the preneed industry, Eternal Plans must take the initiative in leading the way toward recovery with the aid of the Preneed Code. At last there is a law which spells out clearly the powers of a regulator, the responsibilities of a preneed company and rights of the plan holder,” he said.

The new Preneed Code has given the Insurance Commission the authority to adjudicate industry disputes and appoint a conservator for companies with deep financial problems as part of a menu of reforms seeking to strengthen the industry. (PNA)
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