Grace Padaca asked to vacate Governor post

Grace Padaca's win is now a defeat as far as the Comelec is concerned

In the 2007 elections, Grace Padaca won by a stunning 100,007 votes over rival Ben Dy in the governor’s race in Isabela. That win gave reform minded Filipinos a sense of victory since Padaca’s rival is obviously a political heavyweight and a known warlord in Isabela. The Dys threw everything even the kitchen sink to defeat Padaca but it was all for naught. The People then believed that the fight was won fair and square and that democracy triumphed.

Now, the second division of the Comelec, headed by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer is saying that Padaca’s win was a fluke.

Recounting the Isabela votes, the Comelec gave the former governor Dy a margin of 1,900 votes over Padaca. With that, the election body asked Padaca to vacate her gubernatorial post and hand it over to the supposed winner.

Padaca, obviously, was disappointed. How in the world would you be able to defeat a 100,000 vote margin and then come to a conclusion that it was actually a margin of nearly 2,000 votes to the loser? Such a travesty of justice, one might say!

Anyway, Padaca is thinking of filing a Motion for Reconsideration before the Comelec en banc, hoping to reverse the division ruling. Meanwhile, the Dys promised not to create trouble during the pendency of the case. But, you’ll never know what will happen.