MANILA - Team PNoy candidate Cynthia Villar is willing to spend a lot for her senatorial bid, but denied she has already spent P80 million for the polls.

“I don’t think so…that’s too much," she said in an interview with ANC's Headstart.

Asked if she is willing to spend more, like P250 million, the husband of Filipino tycoon, outgoing Senator Manny Villar, said: “Yeah, if it’s allowed, I can spend that.”

Based on rules, senatorial, congressional and other local candidates registered under a political party are only authorized to spend P3 for every voter. Independent candidates without any support from any political party are only authorized to spend P5 for every registered voter.

Villar is running under the Nacionalista Party, which is allied with the Liberal Party-led Team PNoy.

Campaign expenditures are reported in candidates' Statement of Contributions and Expenditures, which should be submitted to the Commission on Elections within 30 days after election day.

Villar said it is her husband and their son who keep tabs on her spending. She said she does not know how much they have spent so far, nor for their foundation.

She stressed, however, that “we’ll stick to rules.”

Strange bedfellows

She also said she and her family have donated a lot for the foundation.

The Villars donated a 4-hectare lot in Las Piñas for a “Sipag Center” for the foundation in their name.

She said money is not something they discuss broadly in their home. “I've worked hard since I was 25, so I’m entitled to something.”

In fact, when she and her husband die, she said she will donate half of their earnings to the foundation.

Asked how much it would be, she said the amount will be “definitely substantial.”

Villar recalled she opted to remain quiet when rumors started to bring down her husband’s presidential campaign in 2010. The senator's claim he came from a poor family was belied by some news reports

“It’s very difficult if they will just erase that [in him]. It’s a kind of role-modeling for the youth. They’re depriving the youth of the chance of making it in this world," Mrs. Villar said on Monday.

She said she got angry with all the criticisms, but “it should not monopolize my life.”

Today, she is running alongside the likes of former Senator Jamby Madrigal, who had lambasted her husband in connection with the allegedly questionable C5 road extension project that he had endorsed.

“I’ve forgotten that. I have to look at her as my teammate.”

What if Madrigal said sorry? “She doesn’t have to say that, I don’t need that.”