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Tacloban City, Philippines — Justice Department prosecutors have filed 10 additional murder-related charges against the 15-year-old student accused in the June 22 shooting at San Jose National High School, which killed three students and injured about 20 others. Prosecutors determined the teen, now identified only as a child in conflict with the law due to confidentiality rules, acted with discernment and in apparent conspiracy with a 14-year-old classmate when he opened fire on campus using a .38-caliber revolver. The new charges — four counts of frustrated murder and six counts of attempted murder — add to earlier murder complaints and will be filed before the Regional Trial Court in Tacloban City, with prosecutors recommending bail of ₱72,000 per frustrated-murder count and ₱36,000 per attempted-murder count. The 14-year-old, legally exempt from criminal liability due to his age, remains under a Department of Social Welfare and Development intervention program instead. Both minors are currently under the custody of a rehabilitation facility. The case has renewed national conversation around youth violence, with authorities also pursuing separate charges against an adult relative whose firearm was used in the attack. Read More

Manila, Philippines — Two petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the Senate impeachment court’s decision to lower the voting threshold needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, with petitioners urging the High Court to intervene immediately rather than wait for the trial to conclude. The dispute began when senator-judges voted 13-1 on September 23 to overturn Presiding Officer Chiz Escudero’s earlier July 6 ruling, which had fixed the conviction threshold at 16 votes, or two-thirds of the Senate’s full 24 members. Under the new rule, only senators who remain “legally and factually capable of participating” in the trial will count toward the two-thirds requirement, effectively lowering the number of votes needed to convict given that several senators have been largely absent from proceedings. Former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, a Duterte ally, argues the change unconstitutionally rewrites the Senate’s composition requirement and has asked the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order and reinstate the original 16-vote threshold. Escudero has said the ruling applies only to this trial and won’t bind future impeachment proceedings, calling it a response to “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” circumstances. The defense team has said pursuing its own Supreme Court challenge remains a real possibility as the trial continues. Read More

Manila, Philippines — Mynt Inc., the operator of GCash, began taking investor orders this week for what’s set to become the largest initial public offering in Philippine history. The company and its shareholders are offering as many as 8 billion shares at a maximum price of ₱10 each, with pricing expected to land below that ceiling around ₱6.50 following strong interest from major global institutions including BlackRock, Capital Group, and Schroders. The deal is expected to price on October 1, with a retail offer period running October 6 to 12 ahead of a projected listing date of October 20. At full scale, the offering could raise up to ₱92.3 billion (roughly $1.47 billion), potentially reviving investor interest in a Philippine stock market that has struggled with thin trading volumes and a wave of delistings. GCash, which began in 2004 as Globe Telecom’s text-based money transfer service, now counts more than 90 million registered users — about three-quarters of the country’s population — and has expanded into savings, credit, insurance, and investment services beyond payments. Read More

Manila, Philippines — Tropical Storm Queenie maintained its strength as it moved northwestward over the Philippine Sea Friday morning, with PAGASA reporting maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 90 kph. The state weather bureau said Queenie, internationally named Surigae, could intensify into a severe tropical storm within hours and reach typhoon category by Sunday as it approaches the boundary of the Philippine Area of Responsibility. Despite its proximity, PAGASA said the storm is not expected to make landfall or directly affect the country, though its trough could still trigger scattered rain and thunderstorms across Mindanao, the Negros Island Region, and parts of the Visayas and Bicol. No tropical cyclone wind signals have been raised so far. Queenie is forecast to exit the PAR sometime between Sunday afternoon and early Monday morning before curving toward the southern islands of Japan. Read More

Nagoya, Japan — Gymnast Carlos Yulo delivered the Philippines’ first gold medal of the 2026 Asian Games on Thursday, ruling the men’s floor exercise final with a score of 14.666 to edge Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi by just 0.066 points. The two-time Olympic champion backed it up Friday with a second gold in the vault, posting an average of 14.599 across two attempts to hold off Iran’s Mahdi Olfati despite an underwhelming qualifying round where he fell on his first vault attempt. The 26-year-old’s Asian Games titles complete a career sweep that already included golds at the Olympics, World Championships, Asian Championships, World Cups, and Southeast Asian Games. Yulo’s younger brother Karl Eldrew also competed in Nagoya, placing fourth in the floor exercise qualifications and joining Carlos on the vault and horizontal bar events. Team Philippines now holds two golds, one silver, and four bronze medals through the Games’ fifth day, with Yulo saying this was some of his best form of the competition despite the pressure of close scoring. Read More

Manila, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan Third Division has ordered the transfer of former House Speaker Martin Romualdez to the New Quezon City Jail, after doctors from the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital testified that there was no imperative medical need for him to remain hospitalized. The ruling follows an independent medical examination conducted over the weekend, requested by the court after Romualdez’s own doctors at Cardinal Santos Medical Center argued he needed continued hospital care for several conditions, including coronary artery disease and psychiatric concerns. Romualdez has remained the most talked-about name in the country since his September 7 arrest on plunder charges tied to an alleged ₱7.44-billion kickback scheme involving flood control funds between 2022 and 2025. Prosecutors allege he used his influence as Speaker to demand a monthly quota of roughly ₱2 billion in kickbacks from former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, and have since accused him of funneling part of the haul into shell companies used to acquire properties and other assets. Romualdez, a first cousin of President Marcos Jr., has denied all charges. His arraignment and pretrial had been scheduled for September 14, though it’s unclear if that proceeded given the ongoing detention dispute. Read More

Cotabato, Philippines — Voters across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao began casting ballots Monday in the region’s first-ever parliamentary elections, a historic milestone following decades of armed conflict and years of negotiated peace. Nearly 2.4 million registered voters are choosing the region’s 80-member parliament, which will in turn select a chief minister to lead the Philippines’ only parliamentary-style government. The vote comes under heightened security after at least three people were killed and 15 wounded in poll-eve violence in Cotabato City, while authorities in Basilan also reported gunfire, an explosion, and allegations of pre-shaded ballots.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared the day a special non-working holiday throughout BARMM and called the election a “defining moment” for the region and the country, describing it as the culmination of a peace process tracing back to 1968. The elections had been postponed four times since originally scheduled for May 2022. Newly elected officials will serve an extended five-year term beginning October 30, following a transition period overseen by the interim Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

Thirteen political parties are contesting seats, with civil society groups calling the vote itself, despite the violence, “something hopeful happening in the Philippines.” Read More

New York, USA — The NBA handed down the most severe punishment in league history against the LA Clippers this week, following a nearly year-long investigation into salary cap circumvention involving star forward Kawhi Leonard. The findings, based on a 35-page report from law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, concluded that the Clippers helped arrange endorsement deals worth tens of millions of dollars between Leonard and companies doing business with the team, including a now-bankrupt firm called Aspiration, in exchange for little to no actual work from Leonard.

As a result, the Clippers must forfeit five future first-round draft picks spanning 2029 to 2033, pay a $30 million fine, and undergo five years of league-mandated compliance monitoring. Team owner Steve Ballmer was suspended from all team and league activities for one year, while president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank received a six-month unpaid suspension; Leonard himself was fined $700,000. Ballmer’s legal team has called the investigation “a witch hunt,” though the NBA and players’ union have confirmed the penalties are final and cannot be appealed. The case has now drawn the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, which has reportedly opened its own inquiry into the Clippers’ dealings, adding a new legal dimension to a scandal that began when a podcast investigation first exposed the arrangement roughly a year ago. Read More