The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) on Sunday said it has paid P3.97 billion in indemnities last year under its agricultural insurance for farmers and fisherfolks across the country.

In a report submitted to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, PCIC President and CEO Atty. Jovy Bernabe said the figure was 75.37 percent up from the P1.937 billion in 2017.

“Most insured farmers and fisherfolk numbering 442,035 received the payments in 20 days or less according to PCIC’s improved and ISO-certified systems,” PCIC said in a statement over the weekend.

The PCIC has provided insurance cover to some 2.27 million farmers and fisherfolk, the highest in its corporate history so far. This was 33.52 percent higher from 1.7 million in 2017, and more than twice the 1.09 million in 2016. Record shows a growth rate in farmer access by 108 percent in the last years, the PCIC said.

Total assets covered included, for the most part, rice, corn and high-value crop farms which totaled 1.845 million hectares, up 39.04 percent from 1.327 million a year earlier.

“The PCIC’s delivery of this gargantuan task, spread as its service is nationwide, was helped in part by the collective commitment of its management and staff to abide by strict operational policies and governance rules,” Bernabe said.

As a result, the PCIC has gained the top honors in corporate governance scorecard as determined by the government’s corporate watchdog, the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), Bernabe added.

In recent assessment, PCIC scored 100.5 in the corporate governance scorecard. The scorecard is used by the GCG to evaluate a government firm’s adherence to best practices and international standards of corporate governance.

The PCIC is the government’s sole arm for providing agricultural insurance. From providing rice and corn insurance, the firm has dynamically evolved and developed an expanded range of insurance products that now includes high-value crops, livestock, fisheries, non-crop agricultural assets, credit and life-term insurance.