Messenger bags P16-M Super Lotto jackpot

After years of toiling in Metro Manila, a man working as a messenger in Makati City is going back home to his home province in the Visayas a millionaire after he won the P16-million jackpot prize of the Super Lotto 6/49 draw on Sept. 3.

The 48-year-old father of three was the sole player to correctly pick the winning number combination 17-07-38-03-23-13 in the game’s draw on Thursday last week. He took home the Super Lotto’s minimum guaranteed prize of P16 million.

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) vice chair and general manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II said that the winner still couldn’t believe his luck when he claimed his prize on Tuesday at the agency’s head office in Mandaluyong City.

“I still can’t believe that this is not anymore a dream but a reality,” the teary-eyed winner said, according to Rojas. The winner also told the PCSO official that over the years, he had made sure he always had spare change to bet on the lottery because he believed it would “give my family a better life someday.”

The winner, who described himself as a regular patron of the PCSO’s games in the last 15 years, told Rojas that he randomly picked the winning number combination and bought three tickets to win the Super Lotto’s jackpot prize.

Rojas said that the winner would soon be quitting his job as a messenger and return to his home province in the Visayas so that he and his wife could start their own piggery business. He added that the winner would also like to use part of his prize to purchase a house and lot for his family, and save a portion of his winnings for his children’s education and future needs.

The winner, the third in a brood of eight, also told Rojas that he would use his newfound wealth to help uplift the lives of his siblings.

Rojas called on the public, on Thursday, to continue supporting the PCSO’s games, noting that aside from improving the lives of lotto winners, the games have been generating billions of pesos in revenues for Filipinos in need of medical assistance.

Of the revenues generated by the PCSO, 55 percent goes to its prize fund, 30 percent to its charity fund and 15 percent to its operations.

Meanwhile, Rojas said that since no lucky player correctly guessed the Ultra Lotto 6/58 winning number combination 09-55-07-33-19-28 in its Sept. 6 draw, the jackpot prize for Friday’s draw has reached an estimated P187 million.