MANILA, Philippines?The election lawyer of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is staking his license as a lawyer if Isabela Governor Grace Padaca loses her case and is unseated from her post.

?I?ll surrender my license as an election lawyer if she loses this case,? election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said.

Padaca?s bid to keep her post got a boost from a recent Supreme Court ruling on a similar case of purported election fraud, according to Macalintal.

He cited the case of El Nido, Palawan Mayor Leonor Corral, who, like Padaca, was also ousted by the Commission on Elections.

Palawan precedent

The Comelec decision upheld a previous ruling by a regional trial court, which declared Corral?s rival the rightful winner of the May 2007 election after invalidating close to 6,000 ballots, the lawyer said.

But the high court on Friday issued a status quo order on the Corral case, he said.

?I hope the Comelec could be properly guided by this Supreme Court resolution in the Corral case when it hears the motion to implement its decision in the case of Governor Grace Padaca,? he said.

Like the Padaca case, Corral?s involved ballots allegedly ?written by one or two persons,? said Macalintal, who, together with Sixto Brillantes, provided legal advice to the El Nido mayor.

?The cases are the same and they both involve ballots invalidated with no evidence or investigation at all?it?s very arbitrary,? Macalintal told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. ?I?m very, very confident that Governor Grace will never, never be unseated.?

Comelec syndicate

He earlier said Padaca had been victimized by a ?syndicate? within the Comelec, whose Second Division declared former Governor Benjamin Dy as the real winner in the 2007 election.

By invalidating some 18,000 votes allegedly written by one or two persons, the division ruled that Dy had won over Padaca by around 1,000 votes.

Macalintal pointed to other cases similar to Padaca?s.

Last March 5, he said the Supreme Court stopped the Comelec from proclaiming the rival of Camarines Norte Governor Jesus Typoco. ?The said resolution of the Comelec was based on spurious documents,? he said.

Also on August 25 this year, the high tribunal kept the election body from implementing its decision on an election protest against a Cavite vice mayor, he said.