MANILA – Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte approved the resumption of lotto games operation will resume on August 4.
PCSO General Manager Royina Marzan-Garma said the resumption of the lotto games was only for areas under the general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ.
Based on the Lotto Circular No. 2020-004, the PCSO will abide by the health protocols of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) such as physical distancing and the wearing of face mask.
The PCSO will initially sell the Lotto 6/42 and Megalotto 6/45 games following its current draw schedule.
The lotto games have been suspended for three months due to the implementation of the community quarantine to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The agency also reiterated that the lotto ticket prices have been rolled back to PHP20.
The PCSO also started holding its so-called catch-up draws for lotto tickets bought by bettors prior to the suspension of all the agency's games last March 17.
Garma said the catch-up draws will be held over the next 15 days which started on Monday (July 20).
"We'll be doing it for 15 days. In one day, we'll have two draws," Garma told reporters.
Garma said that after they finish all the catch-up draws, they will then resume the regular lotto operations.
In a public advisory posted by the PCSO in its website, the agency said the catch-up draws will be broadcast live over their Facebook pages and Youtube, and government television firm PTV channels as well as the government television station PTV-4, the latter on a delayed telecast.
"We wish to emphasize that the PCSO has not resumed its regular gaming operations. There shall still be no selling, ticket validation, and prize claiming for the duration of the catch-up draws, as all Lotto outlets shall remain closed," the advisory said.
"Regularly check and visit http://www.pcso.gov.ph and/or PCSO's official Facebook page for updates in the resumption of our gaming operations," the PCSO urged.
In the draw on Monday, the PCSO drew the winning numbers for Ultra Lotto 6/58 which had a jackpot prize of PHP304.8 million; Regular Lotto 6/42 which carried a jackpot prize of PHP35.3 million, and Super Lotto 6/49 which carried a jackpot prize of PHP38.1 million; and the Grand Lotto 6/55 which carried a jackpot prize of PHP79.8 million and Mega Lotto 6/45 which carried a jackpot prize of PHP8.9 million for the supposed March 16 and 17, 2020, draws.
The Regular Lotto 6/42 draw yielded a winning combination 38-09-42-30-08-34, the Ultra Lotto 6/58 catch-up draw yielded a winning combination of 43-15-21-17-27-54, and the Super Lotto 6/49 draw yielded a winning combination of 29-05-33-37-26-35 for the catch-up draw on March 17.
On the other hand, the Mega Lotto 6/45 catch-up draw for March 16 yielded a winning combination of 05-26-12-09-24-08; and the Grand Lotto 6/55 yielded a winning combination of 54-10-45-41-49.
Garma said there were no jackpot winners in all the lotto draws for March 16 and March 17 catchup draws.
Despite the absence of revenues since March, the PCSO has been aggressive in contributing to the national government's medical as well as humanitarian response to the pandemic.
The agency has released a total of PHP6,731,595 worth of medical assistance to 895 beneficiaries as of July 9.
The Medical Access Program (MAP) is designed to augment the medical needs of indigent Filipinos, particularly hospital confinement, chemotherapy, dialysis, and post-transplant medicines.
The program is funded by revenues from PCSO games nationwide.
Garma said amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis, the agency is continuing to provide medical assistance to the increasing number of indigents seeking help from PCSO.
"Rest assured that the agency will find ways to meet the medical and health-related needs of all Filipinos, especially the marginalized," Garma said. (PNA)
