BAGUIO, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) said on Thursday, April 11, that it has appointed a new spokesperson and Public Information Office (PIO) chief, finally filling the spot that has been left vacant for the past nine months.

An insider, Camille Ting, is the new spokesperson. She is the High Court’s fifth spokesperson, and the first woman to hold the position.

But in a break of tradition, the Supreme Court has appointed a different person as the PIO chief: former ABS-CBN reporter Mike Navallo.

Ting will retain the usual spokesperson tasks, which is facing and coordinating with the press covering the court. Navallo will be in charge of the court’s communications to the rest of the public.

The SC said Ting will assume her role immediately, while Navallo will start on August 1. 

The Court took its time to find the replacement for its last PIO chief/spokesperson, Brian Keith Hosaka, who was appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to be commissioner of the Governance Commission for GOCCs in August 2023. When Hosaka left, the Supreme Court was in the thick of its boosted communication plans through the Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI).

The Supreme Court revamped its website, increased its presence on X (formerly Twitter), started posting on Instagram, and launched a podcast. These were all done under the promised reform of Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo to bring the Court closer to the people.

Ting is former judicial staff head of Associate Justice Midas Marquez, himself a former spokesperson of the Court. Ting is an Ateneo Law alumnus, and started working in the Supreme Court in 2013 when she passed the Bar examinations. The new SC spokesperson is a Master of Laws candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, United Kingdom. 

Meanwhile, Navallo is a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law, after which he pursued private practice before joining ABS-CBN in 2015 where he later covered the justice beat. 

The Supreme Court en banc is currently in Baguio for the yearly summer session. – Rappler.com