From rags to riches: Vendor wins P94M

HE CAN now tell his children that his life story is, literally, from rags to riches.

Too bad, though, that the wife of this vendor from Laguna province, who ekes out a living by selling rags to jeepney drivers, will never know the fortune that hit the man she left when he won the over P94-million, the jackpot prize of the Super Lotto 6/49 in its April 14 draw.

Jose Ferdinand Rojas II, vice chair and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), said on Tuesday that the 40-year-old father of two was the sole player who correctly guessed the winning number combination 13-20-31-41-45-46.

The winner, whose family gets by with a hand-to-mouth existence, won exactly P94,210,188.

To ensure the safety and security of its winners, the PCSO does not give out their identities.

When the winner claimed his prize at the PCSO head office in Mandaluyong City on Monday, he told Rojas that his wife left him and their children  years back because she couldn’t bear living an impoverished life.

“He only earns P100 every day from selling rags to jeepney drivers,” Rojas said of the winner.

The PCSO official noted that the winner was silent when he was asked what he would do if his wife decides to come back.

Despite his meager income, the winner told Rojas that over the last nine years, he had kept his faith that one day he would become a millionaire through the help of the national lottery.

For P20, his dream came true when he availed himself of the PCSO’s lucky pick feature, which electronically selects a combination for the player.

Now that he has joined the country’s list of instant multimillionaires, he told Rojas that he and his children would leave the shanty they were staying in to move to the house he plans on buying with his prize.

To ensure that his family will never go back to poverty, the winner said he will build an apartment building which he would lease to tenants.

Rojas said the man wanted to secure his children’s future by investing a portion of it in a trust fund and saving the rest in the bank.

The Super Lotto 6/49 has a minimum guaranteed prize of P16 million. Its jackpot prize reached more than P94 million after no lucky player correctly guessed the right number combination in the game’s 23 draws, starting Feb. 18.

Because lotto winners are not announced, Rojas assured the public that the lucky ones are real persons since the PCSO recently received a certification from the International Organization for Standardization. This means the PCSO’s processes, from lotto draws to the claiming of prizes, are aboveboard.

The winners are also known to the Commission on Audit, Bureau of Treasury and Land Bank of the Philippines, where the prize is encashed.