He succeeds former Education Secretary and National Artist Alejandro Roces. His other eminent predecessors were Sen. Manuel Manahan, President Diosdado Macapagal and Sen. Raul Manglapus.
Goco has held various posts in government and in the private sector. He was the solicitor general during President Ramos’ term; Philippine Ambassador to Canada and the only Filipino elected to the United Nations International Law Commission. He was also active in International Legal Affairs; the first Filipino elected as president of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) based in Australia; the first Filipino elected as president of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) based in Washington D.C.
He was also charter governor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP). Goco is also the recipient of many International and local awards. He was the awardee of the coveted "World Outstanding Lawyer Award" at Barcelona, Spain; the Dean Robert Storey International Leadership Award at Dallas, Texas; and was chosen as one of the seven distinguished lawyers in the Asian region. He was also the Outstanding Manilan Awardee in Law.
Goco also served as general counsel, senior vice-president of the Land Bank of the Philippines and legal advisers of the National Land Reform Council. Presently, he is chairman emeritus of the Tarriela and partners law firm and a member of the board of regents of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
As solicitor general he won many cases before the Appellate Courts; the first Expanded Valued Addex Tax, the ratification of the World Trade Agreement, the privatization program of the government, the President’s line veto power; the first preparatory recall assembly under the Local Government code; the LRT controversy, the Aquino vs. Beltran and Soliven libel case (as SolGen and counsel for the People he sought the reversal of a lower court’s judgment of conviction in which he succeeded), the Death Penalty, etc.. Goco is also credited as the one who litigated abroad and successfully recovered the Marcos Swiss accounts.
Upon his assumption as chairman, Goco vowed to help the planholders of CAP. He said that the Court approved rehabilitation plan was initiated precisely to render CAP viable for the benefit of the planholders. The singular objective of CAP is to assist its planholders and for them to secure what they had invested at time of availment.
CAP also would like to attend to its thousands of sales force operating is about 145 areas in the Philippines, including their families and for this CAP has resisted its liquidation. Goco has referred to President Arroyo’s own pronouncement in the SONA last year when she recognized the role-played by pre-need companies in the field of education.
He said that it will be unfortunate for an enterprise conceived and designed by Filipino ingenuity to succumb to forces arrayed against it with foreign interest and capital.