MANILA, Philippines--In a curious decision, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday officially recognized Roberto Pagdanganan as the real winner of the 2007 Bulacan gubernatorial polls.

The poll body ordered the Bulacan provincial election supervisor and provincial operations officer to implement a December 1, 2009 ruling of the Comelec second division, which declared Pagdanganan winner against sitting governor Joselito Mendoza by 4,321 votes.

Curiously, the 7-man body voted 3-1-3 in favor of Pagdanganan. Three commissioners including chairman Jose Melo refused to participate in the resolution on the ground that they "have come to establish relations with the parties.

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento was the lone dissenter. "This error in the computation does not occur in just a few precincts," Sarmiento said.

The abstention of the 3 commissioners allowed the members of the Second Division, where the controversial ruling originated, to prevail.

The Comelec decision comes six week before the start of the local campaign period. Pagdanganan and Mendoza are seeking separate congressional seats.

Pagdanganan failed to immediately assume the position in December because the Comelec en banc favored Mendoza's petition saying that the the decision of the Second Division "deprived protestee of his right to administrative due process.” Tuesday's Comelec en banc resolution reversed this.

Even as the new Comelec decision "corrected" the final numbers, it denied Mendoza's claims that the Second division committed errors in "its appreciation of the contested ballots" and "the computation of votes of the parties."

The new Comelec ruling shows that Pagdanganan won by 4,181 votes or 140 votes less than the result of the original recount. Forty-two contested ballots were recounted.