Supreme Court to PCSO: Pay P12 million winner with burned ticket

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to pay the P12 million prize to the man whose winning lotto ticket was partially burned.

In a ruling promulgated on March 13 and released yesterday, the SC denied the petition filed by the PCSO seeking to reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) and the Batangas Regional Trial Court (RTC).

Both courts ruled that the PCSO should recognize the lottery ticket and pay the jackpot prize to the Lotto 6/42 winner.

In 2014, the man placed a bet on the winning combination for the Lotto 6/42 draw at an outlet in Batangas.

However, he discovered that his granddaughter crumpled his winning ticket. His daughter ironed it in an attempt to fix the damaged ticket, but partly burned it instead.

However, the first two digits of the combination, the outlet where the ticket was bought, the draw date and the time and date of purchase remained visible.

The man presented the partially burned ticket to the PCSO in Mandaluyong City. However, the PCSO refused to pay him the lotto prize, claiming that the ticket was damaged.

After several hearings in Congress, the House of Representatives committee on games and amusements recommended that the prize be awarded to the winner. However, the PCSO ignored the recommendation.

This prompted the man to file a complaint before the Batangas RTC, which ruled in his favor.

In its 16-page decision, the CA affirmed the lower court’s ruling that the bettor had clearly established that he owned the ticket and was the only winner of the Lotto 6/42 draw on Oct. 2, 2014.

In ruling in favor of the bettor, the SC examined the secondary evidence he presented.

“The testimonial evidence of (the bettor) and those of his relatives, as substantiated by the PCSO records, and surrounding the fact that (he) entered a winning lotto bet and that the chosen numbers correspond to the winning lotto number was rightly admissible and given weight,” the decision read.