Growing up in a family with overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the newly-assigned Philippine Consul General in Jeddah Edgar B. Badajos assured to prioritize the welfare of the Filipino workers in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia as he assumed his post upon his arrival on Valentine’s day, February 14, 2018.
A native of Bangued, Abra, he managed to finish college in the University of the Philippines College of Law through the help of his three brothers who were among the first wave of OFWs who came to work in Saudi Arabia in the late ‘70s.
“Ang mga kapatid ko ang sumuporta at nagpa-aral sa akin nang mamatay ang aming mga magulang. Ang panganay namin ang siya naming naging tatay, kaya malaki ang respeto ko sa mga OFW, dahil hindi biro ang kanilang mga trabaho na nakikipagsapalaran sa ibang bansa para sa kanilang mga mahal sa buhay,” he told GMA News in an interview.
Upon his arrival in Jeddah, the Consul General went straight to the Consulate’s Bahay Kalinga where the distressed OFWs stayed and assured them to address their cases and guaranteed them to deliver timely, effective, and efficient assistance now that the Assistance-to-Nationals Fund and the Legal Assistance Fund had increased.
Badajos also met with the Philippine Consulate’s officers and staff and attached agencies and reiterated the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Our objective is to do good public service; Overseas Filipinos deserve no less,” he stressed.
Prior to his new post, Badajos served as the Director of the Political-Security Division of the Office of ASEAN Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) where he led a Philippine delegation in negotiations related to the Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea during the Philippines’ Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2017.
He was also a former Vice Consul in the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto from 2000-2003; a Vice Consul turned Consul in the Philippine Consulate General in New York from 2003-2007; and a Minister and Consulate General in the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) from 2009 to 2015.
Badajos is also the co-author of the “Philippine Passport Guidebook” published in 1998 together with the former Consul at Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah.
