MANILA, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- A partial recount of votes in the Philippines' presidential election in 2004 kicked off on Monday, but lawyers said the legally granted action could take several years.

    Romulo Macalintal, the government lawyer in charge said on Monday that the vote recount could take several years and may even go beyond 2010.

    The recount was officially granted by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to former vice-presidential candidate Loren Legarda, who lost the election in 2004, Macalintal said.

    Macalintal, who represents the elected vice-president Noli de Castro, said the Supreme Court, which acts as the PET, would have to thoroughly check some 9,000 election returns and ballots from 124,000 precincts.

    "Then we will know if the protest by Loren Legarda will continue," Macalintal said, adding that he will ask for the dismissal of Legarda's protest if the early results of the recount do not show any sign of cheating as alleged.

    He blamed the long process of election protests despite of the Commission on Elections' modernization program. "If the elections were computerized we would not be facing this problem by now," he said.

    The recount for Legarda's contested votes in the vice-presidential race started at the Court of Appeals compound here at8:30 Monday morning.

    Three revision teams were assigned to focus on the votes while 25 revision teams will be working on the ballots, and the counting will proceed everyday except for weekends and holidays, officials said.

    Legarda said at least 400,000 votes are expected to be recovered in the recount. The number equals half of de Castro's lead in two provinces Lanao del Sur and Cebu.

    The congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, proclaimed De Castro the winner of the vice presidential contest with a total of 15,100,431 votes. Legarda had 14,218,709 votes, or a difference of 881,722 votes. Enditem