Truck driver claims P5-million Freedom Draw prize

MANILA, Philippines - A 43-year-old fan of the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino claimed yesterday the P5-million jackpot prize of the Freedom Draw of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

The lucky winner of last Sunday’s draw is a company driver who bought the tickets in a Baguio City traffic jam. He presented the five winning tickets at the PCSO main office at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

Jose Ferdinand Rojas II, PCSO general manager, said a vendor of the traditional sweepstakes tickets approached the driver who was on board a van that was stuck in traffic along Main street in Baguio two days before the PCSO Freedom Draw that was held to commemorate the death anniversary of Ninoy Aquino last Aug. 21.

Rojas said the driver, who also bets regularly in the online lottery, bought all five tickets in one sheet worth P50 with the number 246369.

“The driver is an avid fan of Ninoy and he even collects and buys items that relates to the late senator,” said Larry Patiag, chief of the internal audit department of the PCSO who interviewed the winner.

The winner plans to renovate his unit at a low-cost housing complex.

Patiag said the driver would also search for a missing brother then he would save the rest of the jackpot in a bank.

The PCSO does not release the identity of jackpot winners for security reasons.

Rojas said three million tickets issued for the Freedom Draw were sold out before the draw at noon last Sunday at the PCSO central office.

He said the PCSO is revitalizing the traditional sweepstakes draw to give more to charity as well as provide decent jobs to handicapped people who usually sell the sweepstakes tickets in the streets.

The traditional sweepstakes draw is the original fund-raising activity of the government for charity programs and it provides handicapped people a chance to sell tickets and earn a decent livelihood.