PCSO: 61 millionaires share P3.5 billion lotto jackpots in 2018

MANILA, Philippines — At least 61 people have become millionaires by winning the jackpot prize in various lotto games this year, according to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan said the winners shared over P3.5 billion in jackpot prizes, including the P1.18-billion Ultra Lotto pot shared by two winners in October.

The PCSO said 58 people won in various lotto games from January to October. Another three won in a span of four days from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.

Of the 61, 22 won the jackpot in Lotto 6/42; 17 from Mega Lotto 6/45; nine from Super Lotto 6/49; eight from Grand Lotto 6/55 and five from Ultra Lotto 6/58.

“The accumulated sales of the agency for lotto alone is P17,039,845,780,” said Balutan. “This is a big help in our charity fund... This is why I encourage everyone to continue patronizing our products.”

The PCSO charter mandates that 55 percent of its revenues should be allocated for prizes, 15 percent for operational expenses and 30 percent for its charity fund.

Lower charity assistance

Despite the increase in lotto sales, the charity assistance released by the PCSO in October has dropped to P181.9 million, 56 percent lower than the releases in the same month last year.

Balutan said the agency was only able to release P181,956,434 for the month of October this year, compared with last year’s P416,663,375.

The drop in the amount of medical assistance released was due to a new policy that lowered the daily budget for the Individual Medical Assistance Program (IMAP) of the agency from P20 million to only about P4.1 million per day.

The new policy was implemented after the Commission on Audit flagged the agency for over-utilizing medical assistance funds.

PCSO charity assistance department (CAD) head Larry Cedro earlier said they have already exceeded the IMAP budget by P500 million as of August 2018.

“The budget department has called the attention of CAD with regard to its fund utilization for the year,” Cedro said in a statement.

“This is attributed to a marked increase in the number of beneficiaries availing of financial support from the agency by 27.93 percent for the first semester of 2018 compared to its 2017 data of the same period. This is compounded further by the rising cost in healthcare treatment,” he added.

Cedro said they are looking for ways to address the problem, noting that some vulnerable sectors such as senior citizens and persons with disability are among those who are being affected.

“We need to do this or else we will go back to the issue of ‘over-utilization.’ As a general rule, you only operate within your budget. Simply put, we can only give what we have,” he said.

“We are asking for everyone’s understanding and cooperation. This is only temporary and the management is doing everything in order to address the issue,” added the PCSO official.