Senator Noli de Castro, the vice presidential candidate of President Gloria Arroyo, has explained that his wife Pacita Torralba has been campaigning against him because he failed to respond to her request to fund a project that no longer existed.

In a TV interview, De Castro said his wife asked for P200,000 (P3,057) from him for a tourism project of the local government of Bohol in southern Luzon. Torralba reportedly threatened to go to the media if De Castro would not give her the money.

De Castro said that he eventually found out that his former spouse was no longer connected with the mayor's office in Bohol. For the first time, De Castro admitted the existence of his first wife, but added that she had left him in 1978.

At that time, she brought her daughter Manuelli with her, but she eventually brought back her daughter in front of his apartment when she was five years old, De Castro said. Their marriage was annulled in 1998. De Castro also denied his wife's accusation that he was not taking care of their daughter.

In another TV interview, Manueli, said she has always been close to her father, adding that he had paid for her studies.

"It was my daddy who put me through school from elementary through college," she said, and denied her mother's claim that her father abandoned her.

"We always see each other and we even hear Mass with my Mommy Arlene and my other siblings," Manueli said, referring to the senator's second wife, Arlene de Castro, who is an executive at the ABS-CBN, a noted TV network.

"I am hurt by the controversy," said teary-eyed Manuelli, adding, "It has been years since I last saw my mother." De Castro also claimed that his first wife married a Pakistani, another Filipino, and a German national.

Last Sunday, Torralba surfaced at the grand rally of the opposition and claimed that her first husband abandoned her and their daughter. Lawyer Jesse Andres defended de Castro saying Torralba is "being manipulated" by certain parties who expect to benefit by destroying de Castro.

"We receive information that there is a big budget available for the demolition job against de Castro," Andres said but declined to identify the parties they suspect to be behind the plot.

Torralba earlier said that de Castro is "unfit to aspire for the vice-presidency," adding that he only finished second year college, contrary to his claim that he was a commerce graduate.