NEW YORK (Reuters) - The former CEO and now Chairman of Delphi Corp <DPHIQ.PK> on Friday testified he had no expectation he would receive an $8.3 million cash award for helping steer the company through bankruptcy, because he didn't expect the company to file for bankruptcy in the first place.

"When I signed on, I had no expectation we'd go into Chapter 11," Steve Miller testified on Friday. "I had no expectation I would be eligible for an emergence bonus," he said.

Miller testified as part of an ongoing hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan to consider the auto parts company's reorganization plan.

Miller, who was succeeded as CEO last year by Rodney O'Neal, stands to get $8.3 million cash upon the company's emergence from bankruptcy, according to court documents. O'Neal would receive $5.3 million, with more than 500 other executives also eligible for bonuses.

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Miller became CEO of Delphi in mid-2005, and the company filed for bankruptcy that October.

Asked by a lawyer representing a union that has objected to the bonuses whether he would accept his bonus in stock instead of cash, Miller said: "I decided I would accept it as cash. I would have a preference for cash."

"So would the creditors," said Tom Kennedy, a lawyer representing the IUE-CWA union.

Delphi on Friday defended the plan to pay about $87 million in bonuses to executives upon the company's emergence from Chapter 11 protection.

Lawyers for unions that oppose the bonus plan tried to show the bonuses were too high, and were based on comparisons to companies that were too different from Delphi to serve as models.

A compensation consultant who helped design the plan said it's not uncommon for large companies to set compensation based on a diverse peer group that may include companies from unrelated industries or of different sizes.

Delphi is aiming to secure $6.1 billion in exit financing to supplement a $2.55 billion equity infusion from a consortium led by Appaloosa Management. Delphi has said it hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 during the first quarter.

The hearing into whether Delphi's reorganization plan should be approved is set to continue on January 22. Delphi said earlier this week 81 percent of ballots cast by unsecured creditors were in favor of the proposed reorganization plan.

(Reporting by Nick Zieminski; editing by Carol Bishopric)