Grilled during a Senate hearing, Robles explained that they have to photoshop the image in order to hide the true identity of the winning bettor, a woman from San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan.

The photoshopped image sparked a controversy after netizens discovered the simulated quality of the photograph.

Robles insisted that they did not commit any error in editing the photograph.

He said the state-owned lottery firm had to alter the clothes of the winner, who was seen receiving the check for her winnings, in order to maintain her anonymity.

“If we have to apologize for a mistake it’s the poor editing. We are sorry that we are not good at editing clothes,” the PCSO chief said.

He insisted that the photographed winner is a real person.

Questioned by Senator Raffy Tulfo during the Senate Committee on Ways and Means hearing, Robles explained that by altering the clothes even the winning bettor’s neighbors will never guess who she was.

However, Tulfo said the incident raised serious questions about the authenticity of lottery draws of the PCSO.

Recently, jackpots for Lotto 49 and Lotto 55 were hit nearly successively. Both lotto systems offered over P600 million each for the grand prize.

“There is a clamor among bettors to determine the truth since many are convinced that the winner of the p690 million was not a legit bettor but instead the friend of a person who invested P30 millino to win the P690 million,” noted Tulfo.

PCSO came under fire from netizens when the photograph circulated in the internet, with many of them expressing suspicions about authenticity of lotto draws.

The controversy triggered a recall of the sweepstakes issue when the chief of the National Bureau of Investigation won the sweepstakes lottery first prize as he led an investigation into the operations of a well-entrenched PCSO syndicate behind a lottery fixing in the 1980’s.