Former Solgen Goco, 84

MANILA, Philippines - Former Solicitor General Raul Goco passed away early yesterday. He was 84.

Goco’s eldest son Emmanuel Pio told GMA News that his father died at 1:30 a.m. from complications after being operated on Tuesday for an aneurysm.

Pio announced the wake for his father will start tonight at the Mount Carmel Shrine in New Manila, Quezon City. Burial will be on Aug. 21 at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City.

Malacañang extended its condolences to the family of the former solicitor general.

“We sympathize with the family of Sol-Gen Raul Goco... We extend our condolences,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

Goco served as solicitor general from August 1992 to September 1996.

Goco was born in Manila and earned his bachelor of law degree from Ateneo de Manila University. He became a member of the Philippine Bar in 1955 and the New York Bar in 1987.

Goco took graduate studies at Far Eastern University in Manila and Special Studies at the Academy of American and International Law in Dallas, Texas. He was a government scholar to the United States.

Goco practiced private law briefly before joining the Department of Justice from 1957 to 1961. He served as a solicitor from 1961 to 1971.

Goco was elected governor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and worked for the IBP’s admission into the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) in 1973.

Goco was elected president of the LAWASIA in 1983, the first Filipino to hold such a position.