Angelo A. Jimenez

Angelo A. Jimenez is a labor lawyer and a respected authority on global worker migration whose work has contributed to the establishment of the Philippines’ new Department of Migrant Workers, as well as the labor migration regulatory framework in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

A former Deputy Administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Jimenez’s expertise and experience in the field of migrant worker welfare have brought him to different parts of the world. He served as Labor Attache in Japan, Kuwait, and Iraq. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo awarded him citations for ensuring the safety of Filipino workers during the Israel-Lebanon conflict and for the rescue of a Filipino hostage held in Iraq.

While at the Department of Labor and Employment, Jimenez represented the agency on the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, Governing Board of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, and the Inter-Agency Media Task Force on Overseas Filipino Workers. At the Office of the President, he represented the Office of the Senior Deputy Executive Secretary in the Presidential Fact-Finding and Policy Advisory Commission on the Protection of Overseas Filipinos––better known as the Gancayco Commission––and the Cabinet Committee on Maritime and Ocean Affairs during the administration of the late President Fidel V. Ramos.

With his extensive background in labor migration, Jimenez has been tapped as an expert lecturer by the UP Centre International de Formation des Autorités et Leaders or International Training Center for Authorities and Leaders Philippines, where he has given lectures on gender-responsive migration governance, ethical recruitment principles, migrant protection, and crisis preparedness. He has also written papers for organizations such as the International Organization for Migration Philippines and the Blas Ople Policy Center, focusing on immigration law and labor recruitment policies, processes, and practices. He is a regular lecturer on Philippine overseas labor laws at the UP Law Center’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education program.

The global outlook of Jimenez is not just a result of the work he accomplished overseas but the education he received abroad. Jimenez graduated with a Master in Public Management degree from the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and was a Lee Kuan Yew Fellow at the Harvard School of Government.

His understanding of the factors that have led to the Filipino diaspora, on the other hand, is the product of his education and experiences in Butuan, Agusan del Norte––where he was born and raised––and in UP Diliman, where he obtained both his Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) degrees. As a law student at UP Diliman, he was an Associate Editor of the Philippine Collegian and President of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. He was also elected Chairperson of the University Student Council and, in 1992, was appointed Student Regent to the UP Board of Regents (BOR) by the late President Corazon C. Aquino. He later rejoined the BOR when he was appointed Regent by former President Rodrigo R. Duterte in 2016, during which he also served concurrently as Trustee of the UP Foundation, Inc.