Questions of Policies
MOA
By Honesto General
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:38:00 08/28/2008
Filed Under: Mindanao peace process, Insurance
The draft Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is like an application for a very large life insurance policy.
If you want to buy a very large life insurance policy, say, P100 million, you have to go through a long and tedious process. In the early days of life insurance in London, about 300 years ago, an applicant had to be interviewed by the board of directors.
Today, you fill up an application form where you tell the company what kind of a policy you are applying for and for what amount. You give such mundane details as: place and date of birth, line of work and how long have you been at it, and so forth. You list your primary and secondary beneficiaries.
At the back of the application form, the agent attests to your good moral character and temperate habits.
Then, you go through a wringer. The company wants to find out how healthy you are. After a routine medical exam by an accredited doctor, you go through a series of tests at the company’s medical department: urine and blood analyses, X-ray and EKG with treadmill. If special tests are needed, you will be sent to an outside clinic. The company will dig into your past medical records.
Even if you pass all the tests with flying colors, your applications could be turned down because of the so-called moral hazard. In spite of the agent’s attestation, the company hires an inspection company that will dig into your financial dealings.
Today, the company also has to make sure that the huge sum you are applying for is not part of an intricate money-laundering scheme. The company will want to know where the money you will use to pay the premium with will be coming from.
Finally, there is the underlying principle of “utmost good faith.” From the earliest beginnings of insurance, life or non-life, the applicant/insured has been required to exercise, not just simple good faith, but utmost good faith, in his answers to the questions in the applications form, the physical and medical examinations, and in all his dealings with the company for as long as the policy is in force.
An insurance application can be turned down at any stage of its processing. Even if the policy is subsequently issued, it can be cancelled under the provisions of the policy and the insurance code.
At any stage of the processing, there is no such thing as a done deal. And even a done deal can be undone. An insurance policy, and any contract for that matter, is not inscribed on stone.
As an insurance professional, the MOA bothers me in three respects. First, how can you expect utmost good faith from a group that has mounted an armed rebellion and wishes to keep its arms and ammo?
Second, how can I agree to a proposal allowing the MILF to set up its own state, and beyond the original area of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at that, and under Islamic law, whatever that means? What will happen to the rights of the non-Muslims, who probably comprise the majority, in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity? Will all the Torrens titles in the area have no further effect?
Third, and this is the most bothersome for me, throughout history and all over the world, a country is cut up only by military conquest. It looks like the MOA was hammered down as if the MILF has won the war, wants more territory, and feast on the spoils.
Previous columns:
The President’s secret agenda – 8/20/08
VAT – 8/13/08
Postscripts – 08/06/08
CTPL: Cure worse than the disease (Part 2) – 7/30/08
CTPL: Cure worse than the disease – 7/23/08
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