Manila  - A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday junked an impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after three days of heated debate.

The committee voted 42-8 to dismiss the complaint, the fourth to be filed against Arroyo since 2005.

In a bid to persuade the committee to find the complaint sufficient, House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora said Arroyo should be given a chance to answer the charges against her.

"It is in the interest of the nation - it is in the interest of the president herself that the issues in this complaint be answered," he said.

Manila  - Four people, including two soldiers, were killed and two were injured in a road collision in the northern Philippines, a police report said.

The accident occurred late Tuesday when a sports utility vehicle collided head-on with a military truck in Porac town in Pampanga province, 80 kilometres north of Manila.

Two soldiers aboard the military truck and two passengers in the sports utility vehicle were killed in the smash-up.

Manila - Philippine share prices soared 6.02 per cent Tuesday, tracking Wall Street's strong performance after a US government bailout of the banking giant Citigroup.

The 30-share composite index of the Philippine Stock Exchange gained 108.46 points to close at 1,908.18.

A total of 1.39 billion shares worth 1.9 billion pesos (38.15 million dollars) were traded. Gainers led losers 77 to 26, while 24 issues were unchanged.

Manila - Six people drowned and four were missing and feared dead in floods in the northern Philippines, the Office of Civil Defence (OCD) said Monday.

More than 230,000 people have been displaced by the floods in 20 towns and two cities in the northern provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora and Kalinga.

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."