Mel Robles, general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), gave an explanation for the edited picture of the lottery winner.

An image of the Bulacan woman who won the Lotto 6/42 draw on December 28, 2023, was released by the PCSO on Wednesday. P43,882,361.60 was the jackpot sum awarded to the winner.

As a result of this being “edited,” internet users had amusing reactions to it and criticized the winner’s legitimacy.

Mel Robles, General Manager of PCSO, provided an explanation for the photo’s editing after hilarious and negative responses to the widely shared edited image of the lottery winner went viral.

Based on the report in Balita, Robles claimed in an interview with GMA’s morning program Unang Hirit that they had to take that action for “security purposes,” noting that it is indeed the case everywhere there is a lottery in the world.

“Ine-edit po talaga ‘yon… ang objective po talaga is to keep the anonymity. Pero… we have to show the people na may totoong nanalo at the same time without violating naman ‘yong privacy niya,” Robles said.