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VERA FILES FACT CHECK: NO ‘revelation’ from Imee Marcos on lotto issue

Sen. Imee Marcos showed evidence of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office lotto draw being faked.

YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER 01/24/2024 Misleading

Marcos said no such thing. She only expressed doubt over the authenticity of the lottery draws after people kept winning the jackpot one after the other.

A video on YouTube is claiming that Sen. Imee Marcos made a huge revelation and said a lotto draw of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) was faked. This misleads.

On Jan. 24, a YouTube channel published the spurious video with the headline:

“KAKAPASOK LANG Grabe! Mga Media at PCSO ROBLES Wala ng KAWALA sa Matinding PASAB0G ni SEN IMEE (Just in! Media and the PCSO Robles cannot escape from the intense exposé of Sen. Imee)”

The video’s thumbnail showed an image of Marcos supposedly holding up the “evidence” to support her “revelation”, while a lottery machine was encircled in red in the background. The following text can also be read:

IMEE KUMANTA! WINASAK ANG PCSO, ROBLES IYAK… ITO ANG EBIDENSYA. PEKE ANG BOLA (Imee sings! Decimates PCSO, Robles cries… This is the evidence, the ball is fake)!”

This is clickbait. Marcos made no exposé about PCSO nor did she mention about balls used for the draw being fake. 

It is not true that Sen. Imee Marcos revealed evidence proving the lotto draw of the PCSO is being gamed.

The Senate probe on the possible anomalies of PCSO’s lotto draws is still ongoing.

In a Jan. 22 Facebook post published on Marcos’ official page, the senator only expressed doubt on the authenticity of PCSO’s lottery draws.

The publisher of misleading video did not provide proof to back up its headline and thumbnail. Apart from Marcos’ statement, it showed only comments from angry netizens.

The investigation on PCSO’s controversial lotto draws is ongoing. In the Senate, Sen. Raffy Tulfo is set to start a probe on the legitimacy of the agency’s jackpot prize winners.

The clickbait video came out a week after a 42-year-old housewife in Bulacan won and claimed the P43-million 6/42 lotto drawn in December 2023. The heavily manipulated photo of the winner went viral and got immense online scrutiny.

YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER (created on Dec. 26, 2015) published the misleading video, garnering over 148,000 views and 5,300 engagements.

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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)