Ex-SolGen Raul Goco passes away early Saturday, he was 84

Former Solicitor General Raul Goco passed away before dawn Saturday, his son said.

In a phone interview with GMA News Online, Goco's eldest son Emmanuel Pio said his father died at 1:30 a.m. after being operated on Tuesday for aneurysm, which led to pneumonia and renal failure. He was 84.

The younger Goco said the wake for the former solicitor general will start at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Mount Carmel Shrine in New Manila, Quezon City.

Burial will be on August 21 at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City, he added.

Meanwhile, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Malacañang extended its condolences to Goco's family.

“Nakikiramay tayo sa pamilya ng Sol-Gen Raul Goco... We extend our condolences to the family,” she said on government-run dzRB radio.

Goco served as Solicitor General from August 11, 1992 to September 22, 1996.

The Office of the Solicitor General said 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.

He took post-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 and handled agrarian disputes.

He worked in the Department of Justice from 1957 to 1961 and served as 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.

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

He was a recipient of the Dean Robert G. Storey Award for International Leadership in 1996.

Goco is married to Marietta Primicias with whom he has five children.

On the other hand, he served as chairman of College Assurance Plan after his stint as Solicitor General.  — Amanda Fernandez and Joel Locsin /LBG, GMA News