Maria Angela Villalba grew up in Butuan City, the Philippines and attended the University of the Philippines-Diliman, majoring in social work. After college she worked as a teacher, then with the government, before deciding to work with NGOs. After living in Hong Kong for ten years and travelling to various parts of the world, she was impressed by the Philippines' post-independence inability to develop like other countries. She started Unlad Kabayan with a long-term goal for Filipinos to find decent jobs in their own country, with overseas employment as a matter of choice, not a lack of feasible options at home.
