Pinoy VOTE

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has told her Chinese counterpart she has decided to cancel a bribery-tainted broadband deal with a China company, officials said Wednesday.

Arroyo met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Shanghai on Tuesday and «explained the difficult decision not to continue» with the contract signed with China's Zhong

Xing Telecommunication Equipment (ZTE) Corp., said presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye, who was traveling with Arroyo.

In Manila, senior Cabinet member Eduardo Ermita said Hu «was very understanding of the position that our president was in.

Ermita said that as a result of the controversy, which has prompted a Senate investigation, «it became politically advisable that the president made such decision.

The head of the Commission on Elections, Benjamin Abalos, resigned and avoided possible impeachment Monday after he was accused of offering bribes to a Cabinet member and a businessman to clear the US$330 million (¤233 million) contract. Abalos has denied any wrongdoing.

Last week, former Socioeconomic Secretary Romulo Neri told senators that Abalos offered him US$4.4 million (¤3.1 million) to endorse ZTE's bid. In an earlier hearing, Jose de Venecia III, founder of a losing Philippine bidder, Amsterdam Holdings Inc., claimed Abalos offered him US$10 million (¤7 million) to withdraw his own broadband proposal.

His lawyers said Abalos would file damage suits against de Venecia and Neri, plus a complaint of perjury against Neri for allegedly lying under oath in the Senate.

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