MANILA, Philippines - Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca on Monday said she is filing a motion for reconsideration before the Commission on Elections en banc on the poll body's decision to annul her victory in the 2007 gubernatorial election.

Padaca said her lawyer, Maria Donna Guia Lerona-Camitan, was putting the finishing touches on the motion questioning the Comelec 2nd Division's decision annulling her 2007 victory and declaring former governor Benjamin Dy as the duly elected governor.

Padaca was proclaimed winner in the gubernatorial race in 2007 with a lead of 17,007 votes over Dy.

Dy, however, asked for a recount of votes involving 683 ballot boxes from 12 towns. In its decision released last Tuesday, the Comelec 2nd Division ruled that Dy got 199,435 votes against Padaca's 198,384, or a lead of 1,051 votes.

In her motion for reconsideration, Padaca said the Comelec failed to credit at least 2,000 votes for her, which would easily erase Dy's 1,000-plus vote lead.

She also noted that some of the rulings included in the Comelec decision "did not correspond with the objections" presented during the process of revision of ballots.

"For example, if the objection was about [ballots] being written by one or two [people], the ruling was about marked ballots. I think apparently even the commissioners themselves or the people who prepared [the decision] for them were confused because of the 12,000-page decision," she told ANC's "Dateline Philippines."

She also noted that ballots in 31 precincts were not even included in the recount because the ballot boxes had "wet contents or no contents at all."

Padaca said her lawyer was surprised by the length of the Comelec decision -- 12,092 pages --  and then being given only five days to file a motion for reconsideration.

The governor denied the accusation that she would hire people to forge thousands of fake ballots in order to win the election.

"I cannot imagine myself hiring people, putting them all in a room, making them sign 'Padaca' and sign the ballots. I wouldn't know where to get them. I am not the one who is the expert here. I am not the one who is so well known over the decades to be an expert in this. It is the Dys," she said.

Not by Malacañang's hand

During the interview, Padaca downplayed the argument that she lost the vote recount after joining the opposition Liberal Party of Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino Jr.

"I have joined the LP not during these days of exodus but as early as 2005. To simply say I lost the case because Malacañang does not like me would be negating all the evidences that I have against the Dy family in the matter of electoral cheating," she said.

She added: "It's not really Malacanang. It's the way the Dys are. They will employ all means fair and foul to perpetrate themselves in power."

Critics of the Arroyo administration earlier said Padaca's ouster was Malacañang's way of getting back at perceived foes of President Arroyo. They cited the Comelec 2nd Division's recent decision to annul Bulacan Gov. Joselito Mendoza's victory in the 2007 poll.

According to the Makati Business Club, the unseating of governors Mendoza and Padaca paves the way for the ascent of politicians identified with the Arroyo administration.

Padaca, who is a Ramon Magsaysay awardee, said her case could be the way for other victims of unjust decisions by the Comelec. She cited the case of one mayor in Bicol who was also removed from office despite having a 12,000-vote lead over his closest rival.

"I hope this case becomes a way for them to come out so that our electoral system is cleansed. This is our only way to institute major changes in our country. How can we make changes if our government leaders come from elections that are not clean?" she said.