Pinay single mom wins AED201,000 in Dubai raffle

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A 31-year-old single mom working as office manager at an HR consultancy here will no longer have to worry about the housing loan she got two years ago for her daughter, after she won AED201,000 (roughly P2.63 million) at a raffle draw

"Para sa aking baby girl. Hindi ko man sya mapamanahan ng malaki, at least may bahay na sya paglaki," Wendy Arroz, who hails from Cagayan Valley in Northern Luzon, told GMA News Online in a phone interview.

(To my baby girl. I may not leave her much when she grows old, but at least she already has a house.)

Arroz's husband left her when she was pregnant with their daughter, who is now eight years old.

She said she had always hoped to win in raffle draws, being a regular at a remittance center giving customers a chance to win up to AED1 million by sending money home.

“Pangarap ko lang na manalo dun, kahit sa AED20,000 weekly draw [I always dream of winning, even in the AED20,000 weekly draw],” she said.

Instead, she won at an online raffle with her number combination matching five of the six digits. Prize was AED1 million and there were four other winners. There was an extra stroke of luck for Arroz as she had a second entry to the draw that matched four out of six numbers and scored her an extra AED1,000.

"I've been participating from the very beginning along with my brother," a company announcement quoted Arroz as saying. "I was driving with my friend during the draw and asked my brother to check the numbers for me. He mentioned I got four out of six. I was shocked and ecstatic to win the 1,000 dirhams."

But there was more.

"As I was celebrating, my friend mentioned that on my other entry, I matched five numbers," said Arroz.

"I had to pull the car over to go online and check the results. I started crying and kept asking myself 'Is this really happening? Is this really true?'"

Arroz said winning the prize changed everything for her.

"I can finally bring my daughter here [in Dubai] from the Philippines," said Arroz, who hasn't seen her daughter in over two years due to COVID-related travel restrictions.

"I usually go back once a year but with COVID-19 restrictions, I haven’t been able to go back the past two years," she said.

In addition to reuniting with her daughter and paying off the housing loan for a single detached structure in Pampanga, Arroz said she has earmarked this money to help her family.

"Mabibigyan ko pa si mama ko [I can also give something to my mother]," she beamed. —KBK, GMA News