Government Service
Santos was elected as a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, a group tasked to draft the 1973 Philippine Constitution. He was a principal sponsor of provisions on social and economic rights, civil and political rights, and anti-corruption provisions. More specifically he sponsored the right of the people to information,right to travel, the right to counsel, right against detention incommunicado; the right to free education, social services, health and housing; and the Ombudsman as defender of citizen's rights, which are carried over to the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines.(See Records of Proceedings of 1971 Constitutional Convention and 1986 Constitutional Commission.)
He was appointed by then Philippine President Corazon Aquino to serve as Officer-in-Charge Governor of Nueva Ecija. In this capacity, he was elected as Chairman of the Regional Development Council of Central Luzon, and Secretary-General of the League of Governors and City Mayors of the Philippines. (See Official Records, Office of the President of the Philippines.) The mother of Ninoy Aquino recommended him to President Cory Aquino as Secretary of Agrarian Reform which was announced by the famous columnist Art Borjal of Philippine Star but instead Santos was offered the position of Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources by a member of the Cojuangco family. Santos diplomatically avoided the offer, saying he would just consider it an honor similar to the honor felt by an Oscar-award nominee. (Oral History.)
He was co-founder with Ninoy Aquino of Lakas ng Bayan during the darkest days of martial rule in 1978 to re-awaken the democratic spirit of the Filipino people and restore democracy. He was the one assigned by Ninoy Aquino to announce to the people of Metro Manila with his four-directional speakers atop his car to stage a Noise Barrage on April 6, 1978. This event was called by Alejandro Roces in his column in the Philippine Star and by Napoleon Rama in his editorial in Panorama magazine of the Sunday Bulletin as "the embryo of the 1986 People Power Revolution" (the First EDSA). Santos called the Noise Barrage of 1978 in his column in People's Journal as "The First Cry of the People Power Revolution of 1986. On 2 October 2009, Santos established the Lakas ng Bayan 2G (Laban!2G) to produce a generation of young transformational leaders through a certification course to be offered by IAME Institute of Political Education, Leadership and Good Governance.(See online record of the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission.)
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