A video on YouTube is erroneously claiming that Melquiades Robles, general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), was the “real winner” of the recent 6/42 lotto draw. This is not true.
On Jan. 21, a YouTube channel published the video with this clickbait headline:
“BREAKING NEWS! SI ROBLES ANG TOTOONG PANALO JAN CONG. MARCOLETA NAGSALITA NA SA ISSUE NG PCSO
(Breaking news! Robles is the reall winner [of the 6/42 lotto draw]. [Sagip Party-list Rep. Rodante] Marcoleta talked about the issue of PCSO).”
In the video’s thumbnail, the following text can also be read:
“FAKE WINNER BISTADO, SI MEL ROBLES ANG TOTOONG PANALO (Robles is the winner. Fake winner caught, Mel Robles is the real winner).”
This is false. The 16-minute video provided no evidence to support its claim and instead showed comments from various netizens criticizing the PCSO.
According to the PCSO’s Jan. 17 post, a 47-year-old housewife from Bulacan won the draw using her family’s birthdays and two other special numbers.
Robles admitted to Sen. Raffy Tulfo during the Jan. 18 hearing of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means that the photo of the winner was edited, but denied that the bettor was fake. “I agree it was a very poor editing, but the objective was to conceal the clothing na makapag-identify sa kanya (that will identify her),” Robles said.
The PCSO exec said the agency received complaints from previous lotto winners that they were identified through their clothes even though their faces were already covered.
Despite that, Tulfo is set to start a probe into the legitimacy of all lotto winners and study the possibility of banning PCSO from increasing the jackpot prize of the lottery games from their prize fund reserve.
The video emerged after the heavily edited photo of the winner receiving the lotto prize went viral and drew immense scrutiny online.
YouTube channel WOW TRENDING PH (created on May 21, 2017) published the video, garnering over 119,000 views and 2,600 engagements.
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