GSIS asks SC to proceed with CTPL plan

MANILA, Philippines - The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to proceed with its takeover of the compulsory third party liability (CTPL) insurance business after this was stopped by the appellate court. In a petition filed late Monday afternoon, the state pension fund said the high court should halt the preliminary injunction issued by the appellate court supposedly to protect the source of livelihood of the agents of private insurance firms. GSIS’s move followed that of the Office of the Solicitor General, which petitioned the Supreme Court early this month to allow the state pension fund to proceed with CTPL plan. GSIS said the appellate court did not ask the complainants to present evidence to back their claims, and failed to note how they had engaged in "forum shopping" by seeking the same relief from other courts. "While the court has discretion on whether or not to grant a petitioner’s prayer for preliminary injunction, it is respectfully submitted that the said authority cannot be exercised capriciously and whimsically as has been done in this case," the state pension fund said. The preliminary injunction in question, issued on October 24, barred the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC), the Land Transportation Office and information technology systems provider Stradcom Corp. from implementing DoTC Order 2007-28. The department order removed the CTPL business from the private sector, and gave it exclusively to GSIS. Insurers said this would take away P2.5 billion worth of existing business from the private sector. GSIS said the appellate court had no way of verifying that "members [of the insurance groups] would be deprived of their livelihood" since not a single witness was presented during the hearings. The insurance groups are: Alliance of Non-Life Insurance Workers of the Philippines, Bukluran ng Manggagawa na Umaasa sa Industriya ng Seguro (BMIS), Inc. and the Movement for the Upliftment of Non-Life Insurance Inc. — Ira P. Pedrasa, BusinessWorld