MANILA, Philippines--President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said on Sunday she canceled the National Broadband Network contract with the Chinese firm ZTE Corp. five months after being informed of the alleged corruption in the deal, because the government had to inform the Chinese government of the cancellation properly.

Arroyo admitted on Saturday in an interview over dzRH radio that she was told of the corruption in the ZTE deal a day before the signing of the contract in Boao, China, but she worked to cancel the contract after that. She did not name the person who told her about the corruption. This drew fire from the opposition, who asked why it took her five months to cancel the deal.

Speaking after a mass at the Palace, the President she canceled the $329-million contract "the moment I learned there was the slightest suspicion of anomaly" in the project.

"Hinintay lamang ang maayos na pag-abiso sa pamahalaan ng Tsina (We just waited to properly advise the Chinese government about the cancellation of the NBN project)," Arroyo said.

The President went to China to witness the signing of the NBN and Cyber Education supply contracts by Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza and ZTE vice president Yu Yong on April 21, 2007. But she canceled the project five months later on Sept. 22 and informed Chinese Hu Jintao of her decision on Oct. 2 in a trip to Shanghai. By that time, Jose de Venecia Jr., founder of a firm competing for the contract, had testified in the Senate that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo told him to back off the NBN deal.

Some senators said her delayed response only showed that Arroyo was part of the corrupt deal in which her husband and some people close to her were being implicated.

On Sunday, she again did not say who informed her about the corruption but noted that she informed Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno about the "alleged bribery that was told to me."

At the same time, Arroyo said she ordered that this be investigated by officials authorized to do such work.

In her speech, Arroyo said that like the people, she said that she too was giving much weight and importance to the NBN issue.

"Tinitiyak ko sa sambayanan na kung may napatunayang nagkasala, pananagutan natin sila (I assure our countrymen that those found guilty here, will be punished)," she said.