After her husband's murder, Cuaresma ran for mayor in the 1988 election and won, serving the three-term limit until 1998. Afterwards, she was elected vice governor for two terms before becoming the fifth woman to become governor of
Nueva Vizcaya in 2004. She served in that post until 2013, when she made an unsuccessful bid to run for the
lone district of
Nueva Vizcaya in the
16th Congress. She was finally elected to the
17th Congress in 2016 and was reelected in 2019 and 2022. She ran for governor in the
2025 Philippine general election, but lost to the incumbent,
Jose Gambito. Cuaresma was a critic of large-scale mining operations in the province such as the
Didipio mine operated by the Australian mining firm
OceanaGold in the town of
Kasibu. In 2008, she and other officials of the provincial government were sued for blocking the mine's operations. As a congresswoman, Cuaresma co-signed the
impeachment complaint against Vice President
Sara Duterte on February 5, 2025. ==Personal life==