Senator wants winner of multiple PCSO games to appear in probe

- Advertisement -

SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday said the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement should invite as a resource person the lottery bettor who won multiple times in the digit games of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to explain the circumstances behind his/her numerous victories.

Pimentel, during the hearing of the sub-committee of the Committee on Games and Amusement, which is chaired by Sen. Raffy Tulfo, said an executive session can be held to listen to the explanation of the winning claimant.

It was Tulfo who first disclosed that a bettor had won the digit games at least 20 times last year based on a list of lottery winners submitted by the PCSO to the committee.

- Advertisement -

In yesterday’s hearing, Tulfo said at least three individuals have won multiple times in the PCSO digit games.

As an example, he said that in 2023, “Person B” claimed the pot prize of P225,000 each two times in July, P225,000 each nine times in August, P225,000 each two times in September, P225,000 each four times in October, P225,000 each nine times in November, and P225,000 each four times in December, or a total of P8.325 million from July to December.

Tulfo said the claimant had a listed taxpayer identification number (TIN) of 000000000.

Tulfo said that based on the PCSO’s winners list, 2,691 bettors won in the digit games on July last year but only 271 of them had TINs.

He observed the same in the following months.

PCSO general manager Melquiades Robles said the claimant could be a lotto agent who was requested by the actual winners to claim their prizes on their behalf. He said the lotto agent could have made an advance payment of the prizes.

Felle Ann Ramos, chief of the PCSO’s prize fund department, said winners are asked to present two government-issued IDs to verify their true identities, but some of them do not have TINs so the PCSO uses the TIN 000000000 when the winners claim the prizes.

Tulfo asked how the winners pay the appropriate taxes if they do not have TINs, to which Ramos said the 20 percent tax is deducted from the winnings before the price is given to the claimant.

Ramos also said the PCSO just lists down the winners’ name in their “alpha list” and write down that their TINs are 000000000.

Lawyer Ralbert John Neil Tibayan, from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Legislative Division, said the bureau cannot compare or verify the winners who paid their taxes since their identifier is the TIN.

“Yung tax po ay nare-remit po sa BIR, nababayaran naman po (The taxes are remitted to the BIR. They are actually paid),” Tibayan told senators.

Tulfo said the PCSO should not allow an agent or certain individuals to claim prizes on other people’s behalf.

Likewise, Tulfo urged the PCSO to be fully transparent especially when troubleshooting glitches during its draws to ensure the integrity of its lotto and digit games.

Tulfo made the remark after a glitch occurred during the PCSO’s February 27, 2 p.m. “Swertres” draw when one of the three draw machines was not able to “capture” the numbered ball, prompting the PCSO to go on standby mode while fixing the problem.

Tulfo said the PCSO should not have gone off air, and instead continued to broadcast live while its technicians troubleshoot the glitch.

“Kailangan huwag kayo mag off air kasi nagkakaroon ng pagdududa ang publiko. The more na nagtatago kayo, kasi nag off air kayo, nagdududa ang tao. So next time, pero sana huwag nang maulit, we want to see it live how you fix it (You should not have gone off air because the people are having doubts on the integrity of your games. The more you hide, because you went off air, the more that the public will have doubts. Next time, but I hope that does not happen again, we want to see live how you fix the glitches),” he said.

Arnel Casas, PCSO assistant general manager for operations, said that the first of three draw machines was not able to capture a numbered ball during its Swertres (three-digit) game.

- Advertisement -spot_img

“Yung draw machine ay may latch po yan. Once nasa taas ang bola tapos hindi na-capture ng latch, kapag nawala ang pressure ay babagsak ulit ang bola. During the pre-draw procedure, nag function naman but all of a sudden during the operation doon nagkaroon ng problema

(The draw machines have latches. Once the balls are up, and then the latch did not capture them, the will fall down once the pressure inside the draw machines weakens. The draw machines were functioning during the pre-draw procedure but all of a sudden it experienced a problem during the actual operation),” Casas told the sub-committee.

Casas said the PCSO has experienced the same glitch at least five times since 1995.

He said it was part of the “procedure” that they go on a standby mode while the draw machines are being fixed, but assured the proceedings are captured on video.

“Part of procedure after announcing that we have this machine malfunction. We brought our broadcast on standby and broadcast again recapping the recorded video during the alternate draw procedure. Everything is recorded,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Pimentel said the PCSO still lacks full transparency to cast away doubts that the games are being manipulated.

“Kasi gumagawa kayo ng hakbang for transparency tapos ipa-publish niyo yung picture nang nanalo supposedly tapos in-edit niyo na parang naging cartoons. Eh nasisira yung credibility ng games. Mag-ingat po ang PCSO. Then lahat ng hakbang for transparency gawin nila, short of revealing the identity of the lotto winners kasi hindi naman required sa batas natin

(You come up with measures for transparency but publishes the pictures of winners which are edited, that eventually looked like a cartoon character. The credibility of the games are already in doubt then. The PCSO should be careful, it should come up with measures for transparency, short of revealing the identity of the lotto winners because it (hiding the identity of winners) is not required under our laws),” Pimentel said.

Author

- Advertisement -

Share post: