San Diegan Claims Big Lotto Prize

A retired Navy chief petty officer from San Diego, a bartender from Panorama City and a computer systems programmer from Castro Valley were identified Tuesday as three of the four players who will divide a lottery jackpot of $15.4 million.

The identity of the fourth winner remained a mystery Tuesday. Lottery officials know only that the player bought the winning ticket at an outlet in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The four winners correctly picked all six numbers in last week’s Lotto 6/49 game. They will receive $3.98 million--minus 20% for federal income taxes--in 20 annual payments. The yearly checks will amount to $159,200 for each winner.

“I’m going to have all those things that a great life can offer,” said Federico S. Aguimatang Jr., 41, the retired sailor. “I’m going to buy a new car, move to a luxury home and have a vacation, probably somewhere in Europe where all the good things are.”

Aguimatang, a part-time insurance adjuster who is the father of three children ranging from 15 months to 16 years, said he plans to help his impoverished sisters and brother in the Philippines.

“They are very, very poor.”

Aguimatang, along with his wife, Corazon, their 15-month-old son, James, and his wife’s parents, entered the San Diego district lottery office about 9:45 a.m. to claim the prize money. However, that was after he spent a hectic Sunday and Monday trying to find out where he would claim his winning receipt.

He spent Sunday at a relative’s home in Long Beach to attend a baptism when a cousin mentioned the six winning numbers--13, 20, 21, 28, 35 and 36. When he returned to his Rancho Penasquitos home, he discovered he had the correct numbers.

Aguimatang said he has spent more than $200 since Dec. 20 buying lottery tickets. He added that he bought so many tickets that he had no reason for picking the winning numbers. “It just came out of the top of my mind,” he said.

Aguimatang retired from the Navy on June 30 after more than 20 years of service. Before going on the lottery-buying spree, he said, he predicted to neighbors and friends that he was going to be a millionaire and began to buy lottery tickets.

Aguimatang is the third San Diego County resident to hit the Lotto jackpot. Last month Gordon Pivar, a salesman who peddled shirts at swap meets, claimed $17.9 million, the biggest prize in California lottery history. Then Renee Nawahine, a long-distance telephone operator, picked the correct six winning numbers and claimed her $8.1 million prize.

Meanwhile, the Little Hoover Commission issued a report accusing the state lottery of operating outside the budgetary, purchasing and contracting constraints imposed on other state agencies.

The commission, which seeks to get state agencies to operate more efficiently, called on the governor and Leagislature to support laws requiring the lottery to undergo the same bugetary oversight as other state agencies.