Cebuana Lhuillier insures a million Filipinos
One million Filipinos officially joined the country’s rally to be a fully-insured nation as Cebuana Lhuillier — the Philippines’ leading microfinancial company — provides free microinsurance through its National Pilipino Protektado Day campaign.
Helping Filipinos be more disasterresilient and prepared against various calamities, Cebuana Lhuillier declared July 21 as the National Pilipino Protektado Day as part of the company’s advocacy to build disasterresilient communities and help the Insurance Commission achieve its vision of protecting 80% of the Filipinos with microinsurance by 2020.
“For the past years, we’ve been constantly just introducing new and innovative products and services to the public to be able to help them be financially secured. This time, with our National Pilipino Protektado Day campaign, we decided to take a bolder step and took the initiative to really touch ground with those who are most vulnerable to calamities and directly offer them free microinsurance as a new way for them to be secured,” Cebuana Lhuillier President and CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier said.
In partnership with Pioneer Insurance and with the help of various public and private organizations, free microinsurance were given out across the Philippines, prioritizing the most vulnerable communities, families and individuals from the marginalized sector.
Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions General Manager Jonathan Batangan reiterated that National Pilipino Protektado Day is only one of the company’s many endeavors in its push for disaster resilience.
“National Pilipino Protektado Day is a great milestone in our disaster preparedness campaign. But after insuring one million Filipinos, we are on to more initiatives that will help us promote microinsurance and foster disaster resiliency. We are introducing an app, a microinsurance organization, and later on, a website–all designed to ultimately promote the welfare of Filipinos,” he said.
Reinforcing its disaster resilience advocacy further, Cebuana Lhuillier has also officially launched Cebuana Alerto during the culminating event. An android app that harnesses the digital mobile platform, Cebuana Alerto is designed to provide real-time vital information about disasters within the Philippines.
Equipped with an interactive technology that allows users to share updates in areas affected by any disaster, the Cebuana Alerto app features an alert system that sends notifications to the user in the event of disasters such as typhoon, earthquake, fire, and flood.
It has live newsfeeds that show the latest updates from third-party government agencies including the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDDRMC) for weather updates, the Department of Education (DEPED) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for school suspension announcements, and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for information on traffic and road conditions. It also informs the users about Cebuana Lhuillier’s various insurance products and services which they can also purchase immediately online through the app.
The app also includes a "Safe Button" special feature that will automatically notify and send an “I AM SAFE” SMS message to the intended recipient about the user’s current state during a disaster.
Simultaneously, Cebuana Lhuillier also led the formation of the Microinsurance Agents Association of the Philippines, Incorporated (MIAAPI) — an organization founded to promote the interests and welfare of microinsurance agents nationwide.
MIAAPI interim Board Members include ASEAN Insurance Council Head Michael Rellosa, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) RFPA Asia Senior Adviser Dante Portula, Pioneer Insurance VP Geric Laude, Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines Past President Enrique Abellana, Philippine Insurers Club Treasurer Edgardo David, RBAP Coordinator Gay Mapano, Eternal Plans SAVP Jumer Lecetivo, Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Executive Trustee Atty. Cesar Vidal, and CLIS General Manager Jonathan Batangan.
Cebuana Lhuillier is also set to launch an online platform for insurance donations called Our Help later this year. Connecting donees in the Philippines and donors from all over the world through a dedicated website, this crowd funding website further aims to provide quality insurance protection awarded to the most vulnerable sectors in the form of premium donation from socially aware enterprises.
Prior to the culmination of the National Pilipino Protektado Day, Cebuana Lhuillier kicked off its disaster resilience advocacy by mounting and leading the highly-commended “2016 READY: The Role of Microinsurance in Building Disaster Resilient Communities” forum last January. A series of roadshows in key cities such as Baguio, Cebu, and Davao immediately followed to cascade the Forum’s learnings. Simultaneously, Cebuana Lhuillier launched during the road shows the Alagang Cebuana Plus Gold or ACP Gold — an improved version of the company’s premiere microinsurance product that already includes a microlife component underwritten by PhilamLife. ACP to date has covered more than six million Filipinos.