Manila - A former close ally of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday accused the embattled leader of corruption and bribery to keep herself in power.

Former House of Representatives speaker Jose de Venecia alleged "large-scale" and "wide-ranging" corruption under the Arroyo administration as he urged his colleagues to support an impeachment motion against the president.

"Everybody is for sale in this country," he lamented. "The time has come for us to cleanse ourselves. Let us please use our conscience if we want to cleanse this government, this country and this Congress."

In one example of corruption, De Venecia said Arroyo bribed "many" congressmen of up to 500,000 pesos (10,000 dollars) each last year to ensure that "a sham impeachment complaint" against her is endorsed in the House of Representatives.

De Venecia said that when he received his bag of money, he realized that "the president is spending a fortune just to buy legal protection for one year."

"This bribe money ... was her way of purchasing legal protection for one year because of a Supreme Court decision that an impeachment case can be filed only once in one year," he said.

De Venecia was ousted as speaker of the House of Representatives last year, after he refused to endorse the 2007 impeachment motion.

He also insisted that Arroyo and her husband were personally involved in an anomalous 329-million-dollar national broadband contract awarded to China's ZTE Corp.

Arroyo scrapped the broadband deal a few months after the contract was signed in April 2007 when a Senate inquiry exposed irregularities surrounding the project.

The scandal led to the resignation of then elections' chief Benjamin Abalos, a close ally of Arroyo, who was accused of bribing a senior Philippine economic official to ensure the contract would be awarded to ZTE Corp.

Arroyo allies tried to distance the leader from the deal and insisted that she did not exert any influence on the project.

But De Venecia told the committee hearing the impeachment motion that the president, her husband and Abalos played golf and had lunch with top ZTE officials in November 2006, a few months before the deal was approved.

De Venecia said he was also present during the golf game and lunch at the ZTE's main headquarters in Shenzhen, China, where Abalos did most of the talking with top ZTE officials.

"Pray tell me, what is the president of the Philippines doing at the ZTE headquarters? Pray tell me, what is the husband of the president doing at the ZTE Corp headquarters, a company that is bidding for a massive project in the Philippines," he said.

The latest impeachment complaint in the House is the fourth to be filed against Arroyo since 2005. It accuses the president of violating the constitution, betrayal of public trust, corruption and bribery.

Arroyo has denied any misdeeds and vowed to stay in power until her term ends in 2010.

She was catapulted into power in 2001 after a military-backed mass uprising ousted former president Joseph Estrada. She was elected to a fresh six-year term as president in 2004, but her victory was marred by allegations of massive cheating. (dpa)