AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee (Facebook)



The tragic story of a young woman who died in a road accident pushed AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee into filing House Bill (HB) No.8498 late last month. The bill is titled, "An Act increasing the Compulsory Third Party Liability Insurance for commercial vehicles and total indemnity claim for death or injury of any passenger, third party, or pedestrian without the necessity of proving fault of negligence." The proposed statute seeks to amend Sections 386, 387, and 391 of the Insurance Code of 2013. In a statement over the weekend, Lee recalled the case of a a 22-year-old cum laude graduate who tragically died after she and her boyfriend figured in a vehicular accident when they were on their way home. He did not name the victims. Lee said the couple stopped at a red light along Quezon Avenue and was on the correct lane. They were wearing helmets. A speeding commercial vehicle, an elf truck, then plowed them down. The woman died three days after in the hospital, where the neophyte congressman would visit and speak with her parents. There, Lee learned that the truck owner offered the woman's relatives a pittance of P50,000 and asked them to sign. They accepted it, with Lee describing the family as having no money. "Noong namatay, dahil ang nakasaad po sa ating Insurance Code, ang no fault indemnity – ‘yon pong huwag na nating pag-usapan kung sino ang may kasalanan – ang nakalagay lang doon ay P15,000. So ang ginawa ng nakabangga, inofferan sila ng P15,000 at sinabi na take it or leave it dahil kung sila ay magkakasuhan aabutin ito nang taon-taon," he said. (When she died, the truck owner offered them P15,000 and told them to take it or leave it, with the alternative of litigation possibly reaching many years. This is because under our Insurance Code, the no fault indemnity--meaning, the matter of who is at fault won't be discussed--amount to P15,000.) Lee lamented that the P15,000 indemnity won't go far in helping the family. "Kahit idagdag mo pa yung P50,000, mas mura pa sa presyo ng isang lechon baka (Even if you add the P50,000, you won't even be able to buy a roast cow)." He said that even if the woman's family would win the case in court--which would entail hiring lawyers and going to hearings--it would only receive P100,000 in death insurance. Following the fatal road mishap, Lee filed HB No.8498 on May 31, 2023. If passed, the measure will increase the amount of insurance claim for death or injury per accident to any passenger, third party or pedestrian without the necessity of proving fault or negligence from P15,000 to at least P1 million. The bill covers the involvement any four-or-more-wheeled commercial motor vehicle designed to transport goods/cargoes and/or persons, with gross vehicle weight (GVW) of up to 4,500 kilograms. The measure is pending first reading in the current 19th Congress.