Former envoy to Chile new DFA spokesperson

MA. TERESITA  "Tess" Daza, the country's former ambassador to Chile, is the new spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

"The new DFA spokesperson, Ambassador Tess Daza, is a distinguished career diplomat who brings with her nearly three decades’ worth of experience in diplomacy and public service. Glad to have her on our team," Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said Thursday.

Daza officially met with international and local press covering foreign affairs on July 28 and promised to facilitate the sharing of accurate and timely information related to DFA.

"I do know that there's much responsibility relative to the spokesperson's role and (there are) a lot of challenges ahead... [W]e are actually exerting all effort to actually be able to facilitate (the media's work) by the sharing of accurate and timely information," she said in a briefing.

"I personally feel that you play a very important role not only in terms of disseminating or sharing the DFA narrative in terms of policy, its services, and programs but more than that you ensure that the country becomes a better, a more open, a more inclusive, a more enlightened society," she added.

Daza previously served as the Philippine Ambassador to India, with concurrent jurisdiction over Nepal, from July 2015 to April 2019.

She was also the Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Jakarta from 2009 to 2013.

Her other foreign postings include Romania and Malaysia.

At the Department of Foreign Affairs, Daza was assigned to various offices such as the Office of Asean Affairs, Office of Protocol and the Office of the Secretary-Economic Diplomacy Unit. (Joyce Ann L. Rocamora)