THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) yesterday admitted editing the viral photo of the winner of its 6/42 lotto draw last December, which was posted on its Facebook page on Wednesday.
PCSO general manager Melquiades “Mel” Robles said the editing was done to hide the identity of the winner, whom he insisted is a “real person.”
The PCSO posted on its Facebook page a photo showing a woman claiming the more than P43 million jackpot in the lotto 6/42 game drawn on December 28, with a winning combination of 18-34-01-11-28-04.
The photo earned various reactions from netizens, most of whom commented that it was edited.
“Yes, your honor, we have to protect the identity of the winner,” Robles told senators when asked if the photo was edited during the hearing conducted by the Committee on Ways and Means on Senate Bill No. 2374 filed by Sen. Raffy Tulfo.
SBN 2374 seeks to prohibit the online placing of bets for all lotto games and instant paper games due to several issues, including risks of minors placing bets and massive unemployment of lotto agents, among others.
Robles said they had to alter what the winner was wearing in the actual photo since there have been instances when the winner’s friends and neighbors identified them because of their clothes.
“May nagreklamo, we covered the face, pero ‘yung damit po nakilala. Nag-rekalmo sila na sana naman po huwag nang ipakita ‘yung damit (A previous winner complained that while we covered the face, we showed the clothes worn by the winner, which was recognized by the winner’s neighbors),” he said.
Robles apologized for the “poor editing.” “It’s a very poor editing but the objective is to conceal the clothing na ma-identify sa kaniya (which can identify her).”
The PCSO chief said the editing process “was part of the PCSO’s measure” to conceal the identity of winners.
“If there’s something we apologize for, it’s the poor editing. But it serves the purpose of concealing the identity. We’re sorry, we’re not very good at editing the clothes. Tunay na tao po ito (That’s a real person who won the jackpot),” Robles said.
Also yesterday, Tulfo and Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III held an executive session with PCSO officials so the real identity of the winner of the P698,806,269 from its 6/55 lotto game drawn on Wednesday night can be revealed.
This after Tulfo said there were circulating reports that “friends” of Robles raised P30 million to bet on the 6/55 lotto game, which had the winning combination 24-50-52-09-51-03.
