Victor is a Filipino diplomat and lawyer. He is currently posted in the Philippine Embassy in Beijing, China fulfilling his first foreign assignment as Third Secretary and Vice Consul. He previously concluded his home office tour of duty with the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Office. Before becoming an officer of the Philippine foreign service in 2022, he spent more than two years in France pursuing two Master of Laws degrees at the Université Paris 2 – Panthéon Assas (LL.M. in European Law and LL.M. in International Arbitration & Disputes Settlement), in both programs graduating with high honors (mention bien). Prior to embarking on his graduate studies, he served as an associate in a Manila-based law firm, as a management assistant with the government’s communications office, as an investigator with the government’s corporate and securities regulator and as a legislative officer for the youth party-list in the House of Representatives.
Victor obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and his Bachelor of Arts in Film and Audio-Visual Communication (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman.
As a college student, Victor was active in student councils, unions, and civic organizations. He was President of the National Union of Students of the Philippines and President of the UST Law Student Council. He was also elected Speaker of the UST Central Student Council. He served as Councilor in the University Student Council of UP Diliman, where he was a partisan of a student political party and a member of various student formations and a fraternity. Beyond the classroom, Victor was an activist and was involved in different organizations pursuing various causes and campaigns.
Whenever there is an opportunity, Victor loves to travel. Aside from trips with his family, he is a backpacker who loves embarking on multi-week journeys, often on his own. He has traveled for a month crisscrossing the north of India, from the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi to the deserts of Rajasthan. On separate occasions, he has spent weeks backpacking in Sri Lanka and most countries in Southeast Asia. His years in France have allowed him to travel to its various regions and have given him a few opportunities to spend time in Germany, the Netherlands, and Greece.
One day he hopes to be able to undertake continental journeys across South America and Africa, ala-Che Guevara–but not necessarily on a motorcycle.
Today, he still fancies the dream of pursuing his passion for travel and going on a voyage around the world to capture photographs, write stories, and make documentaries. He believes that joining the foreign service is a conventionally accepted way to pursue the same dream of seeing the world with a purpose.
According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, Victor is an INFJ (often labeled as the “Advocate”). Friends and colleagues often describe Victor as idealistic and creative, reserved and soft-spoken, yet expressive and passionate, sensitive to people’s feelings, and always interested in helping others and making the world a better place, sometimes to a fault.
Victor is fluent in Tagalog, English, and French–in that order of competence. He looks forward to attaining fluency in Mandarin during his posting in China. He enjoys street photography and is a certified open water scuba diver. He used to play the violin.
Last updated: 23 May 2025