The Philippines has submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations, pledging to cut by 70% its carbon emissions by the year 2030. Meanwhile, the Climate Action Tracker’s latest analysis showed that the Earth could warm 2.7ºC this century. The goal of limiting overall planet warming to 2.0ºC (3.6ºF) from pre-industrial levels is still out of reach, it said. The Philippines’ carbon emission reductions will be taken from the energy, transport, waste, forestry, and industry sectors – the country’s major sources of carbon emissions. But this emission reduction target is conditional on assistance from the international community.

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A US Marine general gave the Philippines fresh assurances that Big Brother is ready to act swiftly if its sovereignty “in the contested area” is challenged. “I would tell you that if anybody would challenge the sovereignty of this country, their best friends within this region would respond within a matter of hours. I assure you that that is not a hallow promise,” Brigadier General Paul Kennedy, commander of the US 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said on Thursday, October 1. Kennedy is in the Philippines for the resumption of the annual PHIBLEX war games between the US Marines and the Philippine Marines. He spoke in the context of the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), an area claimed by the Philippines and 5 other countries including China which has constructed artificial islands there.

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A division of the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan has sentenced to 7 years in prison a former director of the transportation department for falsifying documents to facilitate ghost deliveries of government vehicles purchased using a now deceased lawmaker’s Priority Development Assistance Fund in 2003. The court convicted Venancio Santidad, former director of the Department of Transportation and Communications’ Procurement, Supply and Property Management Service. Santidad was also ordered to pay the government a total of P7.56 million as civil liability, representing the total purchase amount of the undelivered vehicles.

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Even as the recent cases of attacks against the Lumad in Mindanao remain unresolved, another leader of the indigenous people was killed by armed men in Agusan del Sur. The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines identified the victim as 44-year-old Lito Abion of Lumad organization Tagdumahan. He was gunned down by 3 motorcycle-riding men in the village of Doña Flavia in San Luis town at around midnight Monday. The incident is the latest in a spate of Lumad killings, which had sparked calls for a government probe on the attacks, and happened as a Senate investigation was scheduled. 

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An online petition has been launched on change.org, demanding that President Benigno Aquino III and other national officials of his Liberal Party apologize for a party mate’s campaign-cum-birthday event that featured female dancers in skimpy clothes doing a lap dance for guests to see. The lewd performance was done as a “gift” to Laguna Representative Benjamin Agarao, after LP standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II had sworn in new members of the party in the province. Roxas’ camp claims the presidential bet had left the gathering before the much-criticized dance number happened. Agarao told the media he didn’t see anything wrong in the performance.

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A 20-year-old gunman went on a shooting rampage at a community college in the state of Oregon, killing 10 people and wounding 7 before he died in a shootout with police. A visibly angry United States President Barack Obama made an impassioned plea for gun control in the wake of the shooting, blasting Congress for its failure to act in the face of “routine” mass killings. US media reported that it was the 45th mass shooting incident in the country this year.  The unidentified man opened fire in a classroom at Umpqua Community College in rural Roseburg, and moved to other rooms methodically gunning down his victims, witnesses said. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said 10 people were killed and seven were injured, several critically. He said the identity of the victims would not be released for 24 to 48 hours.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to the United Nations to call for an immediate resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians and to savage the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran. “I am prepared to immediately, immediately resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians without any preconditions whatsoever,” he told the General Assembly. Addressing Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas directly, he said: “President Abbas, I know it’s not easy. I know it’s hard. But we owe it to our peoples to try. To continue to try.”His remarks come with Netanyahu scheduled to speak with US President Barack Obama at the White House in November – their first meeting after a deep row about the Iranian nuclear row.

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As the ASEAN region moves toward a borderless economic community, the Philippines will have the most uninviting tax systems among its ASEAN-6 peers should the government not implement a tax cut. The Philippines currently has the second highest personal and highest corporate income tax systems among its ASEAN-6 peers. Why? “The Philippines has been struggling with our fiscal deficit for some years now and one way to fix that is to impose hefty taxes on its citizenry and corporates. Thus we’ve seen tax rates increased to their current levels,” explained Bank of the Philippine Islands research officer Nicholas Antonio Mapa said in an email. Even Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima agreed with other government officials and business groups that “it’s high time for a tax reform.”

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The Supreme Court rejected a petition by tycoon Lucio Tan’s Fortune Tobacco Corporation for a tax refund of P219 million ($4.687 million). The refund was to cover to alleged overpaid excise tax by Fortune Tobacco between the period of June 1 to December 31, 2004. The SC Second Division held that Fortune Tobacco failed to produce the necessary documents to prove its claim for tax refund. The High Court pointed out that Fortune Tobacco failed to not only comply with the basic procedural requirement of presenting only the original copies of its documentary evidence, but also did not meet the requirement to properly make its offer of proof or tender of excluded evidence for proper consideration of SC. It also noted that the petition relied heavily on photocopied documents to prove its claim.

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The Philippine team in the International Basketball Federation defeated Lebanon, 82-70, to make it to the 2015 semifinals in Changsha, Hunan, China. With the win, the Philippines completed the semifinals cast and will clash with second round foe Japan.

Watch the highlights of the Gilas vs Lebanon game here.

The Gilas-Japan match will be on Friday, October 2, at 9:30 pm. You can follow Rappler’s live blog here.