Consul Paul Raymund Cortes, who headed the Philippine mission in Dubai and the neighboring northern emirates for the past six years, has been promoted as assistant secretary for migrant workers and would assume his new post soon as he returns home in August.
“I will be assuming my new position as Assistant Secretary for Migrant Workers when I get back home to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). I received my orders from SFA (Secretary of Foreign Affairs) Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.,” Cortes told Rappler.
“I know how much work this is going to be…para sa bayan (for the country). I need all the prayers I can get,” he added.
Cortes, who arrived in Dubai in 2015, would officially end his tour of duty on August 19.
Dubai, with its approximately 500,000 overseas Filipinos, was Cortes’ first “hardship post.”
His previous post before going to Dubai was in Hawaii from 2006 to 2013, where he was consul and then deputy consul general. Prior to that, Cortes was consul at the Philippine Embassy in Budapest from 1997 to 2004.
“Dubai is a different post for me because here, I am the head of post and the buck stops with me. My two previous postings, in Europe and in the US, were relatively lighter because the ultimate pressure of decision-making didn’t lie on me but to my ambassador or consul general,” Cortes said.
Meanwhile, Felicitas Bay, who led the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Dubai since 2017, ended her tour duty last July 10. She was labor attaché for four years and three months.
She is now in Australia’s capital city of Canberra for her fourth post as labor attaché. – Rappler.com