Trade Secretary Peter Favila on Tuesday said the cancelation of the government's allegedly anomalous $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China's ZTE Corp. is reflected in an official conversation between President Arroyo and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Favila told senators at the resumption of the NBN deal probe that the allegedly bribe-ridden and over-priced contract was "verbally" canceled during a meeting between President Arroyo and then Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"There is no formal document... I would suggest the minutes of the bilateral meetings held in Shanghai (China), which was recorded by the Department of Foreign Affairs would attest the discussions of President [Arroyo], notifying then President Hu Jintao that there's a need to cancel the project. I hope that would suffice," Favila said.

Mrs. Arroyo witnessed the signing of the contract in Boao, China in April 2007.

Favila announced the NBN contract’s suspension Sept. 22, 2007. Almost two weeks after, Malacañang announced that Mrs. Arroyo had convinced the Chinese president to agree to the deal’s cancelation.

Pressed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Blue-Ribbon Committee, Favila said the minutes of the meeting between Mrs. Arroyo and the Chinese President clearly reflects that the NBN contract has been "actually" canceled.

Favila left the hearing early after making the initial testimony to attend a Cabinet meeting in Malacañang. He promised to return in the afternoon with a copy of the minutes of the meeting from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The trade secretary attended the hearing as Mrs. Arroyo had decided to totally scrap Executive Order 464, which has been preventing top government officials from attending congressional hearings.

Meanwhile, only one of the four key persons in the so-called "Greedy Group", cable television executive Leo San Miguel, showed up at the resumption of the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE deal.

The other members of the group--former police official Quirino de la Torre, Ruben Reyes, and Jaime Paz--failed to attend the hearing.

Cayetano said De la Torre and Paz "cannot be located" while Reyes sent a regret letter informing the Senate that he was in a business trip in China.

Former elections chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. and the police and airport officials invited to explain the kidnapping allegations of Senate star witness Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr. used the current criminal proceedings at the Office of the Ombudsman as an excuse for their absence.

Telecommunications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and his assistant secretary, Lorenzo Formoso III, were also absent.

ZTE officials Fan Yang and Yu Yong, who had been implicated in the bribery allegations by Senate witnesses and who had been issued subpoenas by the Senate, also did not attend the Senate proceeding Tuesday.