The Supreme Court (SC) has reportedly issued an order, mandating the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to award the P12-million jackpot prize to a lottery winner despite the partial burning of the ticket.
The court’s Second Division, through Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez, affirmed the previous rulings in favor of Antonio Mendoza. This implies that the Lotto 6/42 jackpot prize of ₱12,391,600 was won by the bettor in 2014, despite the ticket being damaged.
PCSO’s plea to overturn decisions from the Court of Appeals (CA) and the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Balayan, Batangas, was denied by the SC. It held that the circumstances clearly established Mendoza’s bet on the winning lotto numbers.
To recall, Mendoza won the Lotto 6/42 draw back in 2014. However, the winning ticket was crumpled by his granddaughter. In an attempt to straighten it out, his daughter then ironed it with a piece of cloth, which unfortunately resulted in it being burned. Nevertheless, critical information on the ticket remained visible.
The SC emphasized that the evidence presented by Mendoza, including testimonial accounts and PCSO records, substantiated the fact that he placed a winning lotto bet with the numbers corresponding to the winning lotto numbers. Thus, it ruled them admissible and should be given weight in the case.
Read the Supreme Court’s full statement below:
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