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The alleged lotto winner has someone backing him up.
“Dasmariñas City Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. wants the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to pay lotto jackpot winner Antonio Mendoza the PHP12.3 million prize after he passed a polygraph test,” reports Christine F. Herrera in Manila Standard Today.
The report noted: “Mendoza sought Congress’ intervention after the PCSO refused to release the jackpot prize because his winning ticket was inadvertently defaced by a flat iron.”
Mendoza got the support he wanted from Congress.
The report indicated that “in a committee report, Barzaga, chairman of the House committee on games and amusement, said PCSO officials could face graft charges if they continued to withhold the PHP12.3 million.”
The report recalled: “When it was presented in Oct last year, the defaced ticket allegedly could not be read and validated by the lotto machine of the PCSO. The PCSO has a strict policy of “no ticket, no payment” to prevent spurious claims. Mendoza supposedly picked the winning combination of 09-21-31-36-40-41 of the 6/42 lotto for PHP12.391.60 million. However, Mendoza’s grandchild,a toddler, got hold of the ticket and crumpled it. His family members, concerned that the PCSO would not accept the ticket, advised him to iron it. Mendoza’s daughter tried to smoothen the ticket with a flat iron.”
In any case, Barzaga said it was agreed that the PCSO, just like the Commission on Audit, would admit circumstantial and secondary evidence.
The report added: “Barzaga said no one else has come forward to claim the jackpot with the PCSO certifying that the outlet, where Mendoza placed his bet, had sold the winning ticket.”
“It is the committee’s recommendation that the PCSO pay Mendoza the P12.3 million jackpot. The PCSO has to take heed or the public will lose trust and confidence in the agency,” Barzaga declared.
Photo: Video screengrab
