Tropical Storm Trami and the strong monsoon winds had managed to flood Philippines' capital city, Manila, and nearby areas. State financial bodies such as the Philippine Stock Exchange and Central Bank (or Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) have cancelled business activities to date. Flood warnings have prompted education departments to cancel classes in all school levels.
Business groups, on the other hand, were exasperated, perhaps with the recent effect of the typhoon. Considering that the business community is well acquainted of the fact that the tropical country gets more than 20 major weather disturbances a year, it is not until late that the community has noticed the magnitude of the weather's impact to markets.
"There was a chain reaction that caused many businesses to be shut down. In retrospect, there was a lot of agencies that could have gone to work but that is the difficulty with forecasting because the government just wanted to be sure," PhilExport President Sergio R. Ortiz- Luis said to online newspaper BusinessWorld. Makati Business Club Executive Director Peter Angelo V. Perfecto sent in a text message also to BusinessWorld, which read, "Predicting the weather has become more challenging and this just underscores the need for better preparedness".
In an interview with BBC, Andrew Tjaardstra, Asia editor of Insurance Insight, concluded that companies should look into acquire insurances to cover these types of disasters. 2012 Typhoon Sendong, or international name Washi, left 3,000 dead and PHP1.03 billion in damages. Typhoon Ondoy left the most damage in 2009, leaving 747 dead and PHP45 billion in damages.
Tjaardstra also added that getting corporate insurance was not a priority for most companies, and often purchase insurance when there's money to spare. "Some large companies do (spend), but SMEs tend not to," he added.
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