After he passed the bar in 1965, Roco lobbied for the holding of a
Constitutional Convention that aimed to amend the 1935 Philippine Constitution. He campaigned for a seat to represent his district in
Camarines Sur. He won and thus became convention's youngest
Bicolano delegate. He became one the legal staff of the late Philippine Senator
Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, and he drafted the Study Now, Pay Later law. From 1983 to 1985, he served as president of the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines. Under his term, he questioned
Ferdinand Marcos presidential decrees. Alongside his work in law, he has also served as a film producer. In 1974, he was the executive producer of the late film director Lino Brocka's film
Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, which won six
FAMAS awards that year, including Best Film. Among all legislators of the Eighth Congress of the Philippines (which lasted from 1987 to 1992), he was adjudged by the
Ford Foundation and the University of the Philippines Institute of Strategic and Development Studies as first in over-all performance.
Senate Roco was elected to the Senate in 1992 and 1995 serving until 2001, making many contributions that led many to recognize him as an "outstanding senator". He wrote the law which reformed the nation's banking system; this earned him the title "Father of the Bangko Sentral". Some other laws that he wrote resulted in the liberalization of the banking industry and the strengthening of the thrift banks. In addition, he wrote the Intellectual Property Code and the Securities Regulation Code. As senator, Roco opposed the
reinstitution of
capital punishment in Philippine law, stating that "Even in the darkest days of
martial law, when death was the ready punishment, there were more killings, more tortures, more inhumane crimes committed. Death did not deter then. It will not deter now." In 1994, he also filed a case before the
Supreme Court against a newly approved law restructuring the value-added tax (Republic Act No. 7716), arguing that it is potentially unconstitutional for including books and other mass media in the tax. Roco, serving as vice chairman of the
Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, has also made several contributions to education in the Philippines. In 1994, Roco supported the abolition of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), which was put in place by President
Ferdinand Marcos in 1978. He helped fund the teachers' cooperatives as well as the increment mandated by the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers for retiring public school teachers. On the students' side, he helped bring computers into Philippine universities, colleges, and public schools. In addition, he devised a plan for meal scholarships for poor students at the Philippine Normal University. Roco wrote several bills targeted at protecting and prioritizing women in the Philippines. He wrote the Women in Nation Building Law, the Nursing Act, the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, the Anti-Rape Law, and the Child and Family Courts Act. He also let women play major roles in the Department of Education's literacy program. Out of thanks to his services for women, many women's groups named him an "Honorary Woman". He also drafted a bill that abolished double taxation on Filipinos working abroad. He was given the Bantay Katarungan award by Kilosbayan for playing an integral role in the Senate impeachment trial of then-president
Joseph Estrada who was impeached by the House of Representatives on 2000 for graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the
1987 Philippine Constitution. Unfortunately, the impeachment trial was not concluded and in 2001, Estrada was ousted from power by another
People Power uprising.
As Secretary of Education Roco took over as education secretary of the Philippines in 2001, at a time when the Philippines had not only one of the ten most corrupt governments in the world (according to
Transparency International), but its Department of Education was also the fourth-most corrupt of its agencies (as named by the Asia Foundation - Social Weather Stations Survey of Enterprises on Public Sector Corruption). To combat this corruption, Roco imposed a department-wide transparency policy which also held employees accountable for the purchase of textbooks, which had been a major source of the department's corruption. This allowed the department to purchase textbooks for a much lower price, and after just eight months under Roco's leadership, the Department of Education gained a 73% public approval rating and became the most trusted government agency in the Philippines. During his tenure in that position, Roco allowed free public education (through high school) as required by the Philippine Constitution. He also enacted a reform of basic education curriculum in order that children would focus their studies on reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and Makabayan. In addition, he made sure that teachers were paid promptly and ended the 3% "service fee" that the department had long been deducting from teachers' pay. ==Candidacy for President==