The Commission on Audit found several irregularities in the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 2013 procurement of petroleum, oil, and lubricants (POL) worth P68.65 million ($1.5 million) in response to Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) that devastated central Philippines. Yolanda made international headlines two years ago after claiming thousands of lives and leaving unimaginable destruction in several parts of the country, including Eastern Visayas. State auditors discover that the military bought petroleum, oil, and lubricants through a repeat order. Supplemental contract agreements are undated and some required documents are missing.

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The leader of the Catholic Church in the Philippines appealed to the military to leave the persecuted Lumad or indigenous communities in the southern island of Mindanao, and at the same time urged paramilitary groups to lay down their arms to ensure peace in these communities. It was one of the strongest statements made by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle as church leader. His presence in Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila – where the indigenous people are camping out – is striking in itself because he does not usually attend protest movements, much less speak in these events. Earlier, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) also dared the Aquino administration to investigate the Lumad killings in Mindanao despite the alleged culprits’ links with the government.

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The Court of Appeals has the power to review and stop orders issued by the Office of the Ombudsman against elected officials, the Supreme Court ruled. In effect, it upheld the CA’s order in March 2015 to stop the first suspension order of Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. At the time, the Ombudsman insisted on the suspension, saying the CA had no right to intervene in the case. Despite the High Court’s ruling, the CA’s right to temporarily stop the Ombudsman’s order against Binay had been rendered moot by the final decision of the Ombudsman in October to dismiss Binay and bar him from holding any public office.

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For the second time in 19 years, the Philippines hosts leaders from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies. Between then and now, the Philippine economy has become about 3 times larger, taking advantage of the freer markets around the region. Members of Manila’s APEC Business Advisory Council sat down with Rappler to talk about what the country hopes to gain from hosting APEC 2015 in the next several days. For one, they say, the eagerness of booming economies to open up their markets to developing countries, like the Philippines, is somehow linked to the country’s major growth drivers – remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and the burgeoning business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

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Rappler’s live stream of APEC Day 1, click here.

Activists seeking justice for a brutal 1965 anti-communist purge in Indonesia launched a people’s court, charging the state with crimes against humanity 50 years after the crackdown. “It is time to break down the vicious circle of denial, distortion, taboo, secrecy surrounding the events of 1965,” Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, a leading Indonesian activist, told the start of 4 days of hearings in The Hague, home to several international criminal tribunals. Indonesia was charged with 9 counts of crimes against humanity at the mock tribunal – which carries no legal weight – being heard before a panel of 7 international judges. At least 500,000 people died in the purge across the Southeast Asian archipelago that started after then General Suharto put down a coup on October 1, 1965.

Read the full story on Rappler Indonesia.

World nations struck a landmark deal on using satellites to track flights, which could prove key to preventing a repeat of the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 in March 2014. The accord was reached during a conference hosted by the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union that aimed to improve on the current civilian flight-tracking system which relies on ground-based radars. The ITU made clear the deal was driven by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which had 239 people on board.

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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi as the new UN High Commissioner for Refugees, tasked with handling the world’s worst-ever refugee crisis. The 58-year-old diplomat will replace Antonio Guterres, of Portugal, who has led UN efforts since 2005 to help 60 million people worldwide who have been driven from their homes by wars and persecution. Grandi, who served in served in the UN mission in Afghanistan, who will take up the job on January 1.

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In Ethiopia where almost 9 in every 10 women give birth at home after pregnancies with little or no medical support, a mobile phone app is coming to the rescue with lifesaving guidelines when things go wrong. The “Safe Delivery App,” created by the Danish development organization the Maternity Foundation, provides simplified instructions and animated films for midwives or birth attendants to deal with emergency situations, be it hemorrhaging, birthing complications, resuscitating newborns, or infections. The initiative is proving even more vital in rural areas, where the only help many mothers get is from family members or a local woman.

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For most families in the poorest provinces in the Philippines, the problem of hunger can be explained simply: they have inadequate income and they lack regular jobs. A survey of 1,600 households in the 16 poorest provinces mentioned these as the top reasons for food insecurity. The results showed that 37% of all households surveyed from August 16 to September 5 went hungry in the past 12 months because they did not have enough income to buy food. Meanwhile, 18% went hungry because they did not have a regular job to start with. They are in the provinces of Apayao, Masbate, Negros Oriental, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Western Samar, Zamboange del Norte, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Saranggani, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Sulu.

Read the full story on Rappler Hunger Project.

The government is calling on the Filipino public to help validate the initial results of its Listahanan 2nd nationwide assessment that attempts to classify who are the poor among 15.3 million households across the country. The validation will help the Department of Social Welfare and Development arrive at an “accurate, complete, and reliable” final list of poor Filipino families in need of government assistance. The lists will be posted at barangay, municipal, and city halls. If the list seems incomplete, families can notify their villages’ validation committees.

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