Death didn’t stop Dolphy from giving bettors fun

A SANTA for all seasons INQUIRER PHOTO

CEBU CITY—Even in death, comedy king Dolphy made his fans smile.

The official time of his death —8:34 p.m.—was the winning number combination of Swertres, the three-digit game of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), at the 11 a.m. draw on July 11.

More than 1,000 people won P4,500 each after betting on 834, said Federico Damole, PCSO acting manager for Visayas and Mindanao.

He said around 1,200 winners for Swertres-Rambolito would each get P750.

“It was just coincidental [that the winning combination was the same as the time of Dolphy’s death],” Damole said. He recalled that a few years ago, the combination 225 was drawn on Feb. 25, the Edsa 1 anniversary, while the 143 combination was drawn on a Feb. 14.

Swertres-straight specifies the exact order which the numbers are drawn. In Swetres-Rambolito, no particular order is required as long as the bettors have the winning digits.

Damole explained that the PCSO would only accept a maximum of 1,000 P10 bets on a single number combination for Swertres-straight and 1,200 bets for Swertres-Rambolito results for the entire Visayas-Mindanao area.

Once these numbers are reached, the PCSO would declare a combination sold out. Because PCSO outlets declared early that the 834 combination had been sold out, many of bettors decided to place bets with illegal Swertres  ushers.

One of those, who won in the illegal numbers game based on the Swertres, was vendor Marites Canales in Pier 1, Cebu City.

Saddened, happy

“We were saddened over his death but we also feel happy that we won in the lotto,” said Canales, an avid Dolphy fan who claimed to have watched all episodes of the sitcom “Home Along Da Riles” over ABS-CBN.

Canales said her live-in partner, Johnny Gonzaga, 38, placed a P10 bet for the 834 combination in an illegal Swertres outlet on Arellano Boulevard, Barangay San Roque.

Under the illegal numbers game based on Swertres, a bet of P1 can win P550 while a P10 bet on a winning number in PCSO Swertres lotto draw could win P4,500.

Canales said they read the actual time of Dolphy’s death from a local tabloid so they immediately placed a bet based on those numbers. She and her live-in partner won about P5,500, which she said they would use as additional capital for their small business.

Bebot Yu, a crew of an inter-island vessel, MV Filipinas Iloilo, which docked at Pier 1, said he won P6,400 after placing P20 (P10 placed on the straight result and the other P10 for the rumble result).

Yu said he was a fan of Dolphy, especially during his college days when he usually watched his movies.

He added that he placed bets on Swertres only if he could get a special number combination based on an event. When he saw the official time of Dolphy’s death on the Internet, Yu said he decided to place bets with the illegal numbers “usher.”

“I told myself that I hoped that Dolphy will refund all I spent to watch  his movies,” he said.