ABS-CBN reporter-lawyer is SC chief communications officer

Michael Navallo (Photo from the Supreme Court)

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday named its new chief communications officer and first female spokesperson.

According to the high court in a statement, multi-platform journalist and lawyer Michael “Mike” Navallo will serve as its chief communications officer.

Meanwhile, Camille Ting will serve as its spokesperson, marking the first time a woman has been appointed to this position.

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Navallo will head the Supreme Court Communications Office beginning on August 1, while Ting will assume office immediately and head the Supreme Court Office of the Spokesperson.

Prior to his appointment, the SC said Navallo was a veteran journalist who worked for ABS-CBN for 8 years, covering human rights stories and the Justice beat.

He was selected as a Reham al-Farra fellow by the United Nations in 2017 and was part of the team that won the 2017 Society of Publishers in Asia Award for Human Rights Reporting.

Navallo is also a four-time fellow for the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), and was given the Award of Distinction by the CMFR in 2023.

He graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication in 2005, and then earned his Juris Doctor degree from the UP College of Law in 2009.

He is currently a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the International Forum for Democratic Studies under the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, the SC said Ting worked as a court insider for more than 11 years.

Ting began her career in the Supreme Court as a news analyst for the Public Information Office in 2012 right after graduating from law school.

Camille Ting has been named Supreme Court spokesperson. (Photo from SC)

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Upon passing the 2012 Bar Examinations, Ting became the executive assistant in the Office of the Court Administrator, and then later became the Judicial Staff Head of Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Midas P. Marquez in 2021.

She also served in the secretariat for various committees, such as the Committee on the Revision of the Rules of Court, the Sub-Committees for the Revision of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, Revision of the Rules of Procedure for Intellectual Property Rights Cases, and Revision of the Rules for Criminal Procedure, Special Committee on Virtual Hearings and Electronic Testimony, as well as the Ad Hoc Committee for the Formulation of the Special Rules of Procedure on Anti-Terrorism Case, among others.

She finished her Bachelor of Arts degree, major in Philosophy, and Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree, major in Legal Management in 2005, at De La Salle University Manila.

Ting then earned her Juris Doctor degree with Second Honors from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law in 2012, and Masters’ degree in Philosophical Research from De La Salle University Manila in 2007.

She is currently a Master of Laws candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London in England and is awaiting her graduation.