The Supreme Court (SC) today named multi-platform journalist-lawyer Atty. Michael Jobert “Mike” I. Navallo as its Chief Communications Officer and SC Court Attorney Camille Sue Mae L. Ting as its new Spokesperson. Atty. Ting is the High Court’s first female Spokesperson.

Atty. Navallo will head the Supreme Court Communications Office, while Atty. Ting will head the Supreme Court Office of the Spokesperson.

Atty. Navallo, who will assume office on August 1, 2024, was a multi-platform journalist for ABS-CBN News based in Manila and is currently a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the International Forum for Democratic Studies under the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC.

He worked for ABS-CBN News for eight years, mostly covering human rights stories and the Justice beat comprising the Supreme Court, other courts, and the Department of Justice. He was part of the team that won the 2017 Society of Publishers in Asia Award for Human Rights Reporting and was given the Award of Distinction by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in 2023. In 2017, he was selected as a Reham al-Farra fellow by the United Nations.

Atty. Navallo is also a four-time fellow for the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. Prior to joining ABS-CBN News in 2015, he worked as a litigator at SyCip Law and as a research consultant for Amnesty International’s research on police torture.

As Justice beat reporter, he covered the sedition raps against key opposition figures uncovering the involvement of the Office of the Solicitor General; the conviction of some Ampatuans in the Maguindanao massacre murder cases; the dismissal of the election protest against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo; the ABS-CBN shutdown; Maria Ressa’s conviction for cyber libel; the oral arguments on the petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the International Criminal Court Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision to authorize the probe on President Duterte’s war on drugs. He also covered the arrests of then-senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV, the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh and the 2017 United Nations General Assembly in New York as a UN Reham al-Farra fellow. He also served as co-anchor for the morning newscast ANC Rundown on the ABS-CBN News Channel.

Atty. Navallo earned his journalism degree, graduating magna cum laude, from the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication in 2005, and a Juris Doctor degree from the UP College of Law in 2009.

The Court’s first female Spokesperson and the fifth to hold the position, Atty. Ting will assume office immediately. She is a certified court insider, having been with the Court for more than 11 years now.  After graduating law school, she began her career in the Supreme Court Public Information Office (PIO) as a News Analyst in 2012.

She left the Court briefly to take the 2012 Bar Examinations, then rejoined the Court immediately as an executive assistant in the Office of the Court Administrator. She rose from the ranks until she became the Judicial Staff Head of Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Midas P. Marquez in 2021.

In the Court, Atty. Ting 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, and the Ad Hoc Committee for the Formulation of the Special Rules of Procedure on Anti-Terrorism Cases, to name a few.

She is also a member of the Committee on Facilitated Naturalization of Refugees and Stateless Individuals and the Special Committee on Cybercrime and Electronic Evidence. She has also represented the Court in international conferences such as the Council of Europe’s First Meeting of the National Judicial Trainers on Cybercrime and Electronic Evidence in Strasbourg, France, and the 2018 Australia-Philippines Counter-Terrorism Study Visit in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.  

Atty. Ting 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 finished her Bachelor of Arts degree, major in Philosophy, and Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree, major in Legal Management in 2005, also from De La Salle University Manila.

She is currently a Master of Laws candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, United Kingdom and is awaiting her graduation. She has also completed the academic requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy degree at De La Salle University Manila. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court Public Information Office)