On the strength of 268 affirmative votes, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a measure that seeks to expand the services of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) and at the same time encourage private sector participation in agricultural insurance. Passed during plenary session Tuesday, March 21 was House Bill (HB) No.7387, which seeks to further revise Presidential Decree (PD) No.1467, creating the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation, as amended. There were no negative votes or abstentions recorded during nominal voting. The measure cited the policy of the State to develop and support an adequate agricultural insurance program as a mechanism for managing the risks inherent in agriculture and stabilizing the financial fluctuations suffered by agricultural producers in case of loss on all agricultural commodities, whether crops or livestock. The program also includes agricultural facilities and related infrastructures, with the end in view of encouraging lending institutions to extend credit to the agricultural sector. The measure cited the policy of the State to develop and support an adequate agricultural insurance program as a mechanism for managing the risks inherent in agriculture and stabilizing the financial fluctuations suffered by agricultural producers in case of loss on all agricultural commodities, whether crops or livestock and including the agricultural facilities and related infrastructures, with the end in view of encouraging lending institutions to extend credit to the agricultural sector. "It shall also be the policy of the State to promote the modernization of the agricultural sector by mitigating the risks inherent to the industry and which increase the barriers to increased market participation in businesses related to agriculture," it said. "Towards this end, the State shall encourage active private sector participation in extending agricultural insurance to members of the agricultural sector by allowing the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation to undertake reinsurance agreements with private sector agricultural insurers and to extend its insurance services to livestock, aquaculture and fishery, agro fishery, and forest plantation insurance," it further said. As per HB No.7387, Section 1 of PD No. 1467, as amended, will be further amended to read as follows: “Section 1. Creation of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation. – There is hereby created a body corporate to be known as the “Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation” which shall be attached to the Department of Agriculture for budgetary purposes." The Corporation, the section said, shall insure farmers against losses arising from natural calamities, plant diseases, and pest infestations. It shall also provide insurance coverage for all agricultural commodities, including palay crops, and other crops, without prejudice to the inclusion of other non-crop agricultural assets, such as livestock, aquaculture and fishery, agroforestry, forest plantations, machineries, equipment, transport facilities, and other related infrastructures, as the board of directors of the Corporation may determine. "Such insurance shall cover, in every case, the cost of production inputs, the value of the farmer’s own labor and those of the members of his household, including the value of the labor of hired workers, and a portion of the expected yield as the board of directors, in its discretion, decide to insure," it added. "Such insurance protection, however, shall exclude losses arising from avoidable risks emanating from or due to the negligence, malfeasance or fraud committed by the insured or any member of his immediate farm household or employee. The corporation shall also offer reinsurance services for entities willing to offer agricultural insurance," it further read. The measure completely overhauls Subsection 9.1, Section 9 of PD No.1467, which provides for the composition of the PCIC Board of Directors. "The powers of the PCIC shall be vested in and exercised by its board of directors, composed of eight members as follows: Secretary of Finance as ex-officio chairperson; President of the PCIC as ex-officio vice chairperson; President of the Landbank; Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA); One representative from the private insurance industry to be nominated by the Secretary of Finance; and three representatives from the subsistence farmers' sector, preferably representingagrarian reform beneficiaries, cooperatives, or associations coming from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, who shall be selected and nominated by the different farmers' organizations or cooperatives." Likewise, HB No.7387 provides via an amended Section 14, which reads, "To support and to promote the operations of the corporation, all government departments, bureaus, offices, agencies and instrumentalities, national or local, all lending institutions, government or private, now or hereafter engaged in the supervised credit program to farmers and fisherfolk, and such other public or private entities as may be called upon by the corporation, shall act as cooperating agencies to the corporation, and for this purpose, are hereby directed to design their policies, programs, rules and regulations so as to attune and synchronize them with the objectives of the corporation."