Sydney, Australia
20 October 2012

Atty. Jess Diaz is a Barrister in Australia and was formerly Senior Legal Counsel at a multinational bank. He is the first Philippine-born and first Asian elected as Councilor of Blacktown City, where an estimated 25,000 Filipino reside. He is the founding President of the Philippine Community Council of New South Wales, and founder of the Philippine Sydney Jaycees. He was appointed Chairman of the Filipino Languages Syllabus Committee, NSW Board of Studies by the NSW Government’s Department of Education after lobbying for approval of Filipino to be included for study in the Higher School Certificate curriculum. Also, Filipino was approved in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) language in Term 4 of 1995. The first HSC examination in 2-units of Filipino was administered on October 27, 1998. Atty. Diaz is formerly a Board Member of the NSW Board of Adult and Community Education (BACE).

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