Sonia Malasarte Roco (born 20 July 1944) is the widow of Filipino senator and

Presidential candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

Raul Roco. She ran for the Senate in the 2007 Philippine Midterm Elections under her late husband's party,

Aksyon Demokratiko Aksyon Demokratiko ( ) or simply Aksyon is a political party in the Philippines founded by Raul Roco. It was recognized as a national political party in 1998 by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and is considered to be one of the major partie ...

, which is allied with the broad opposition coalition called

Genuine Opposition Genuine Opposition (GO) was an electoral alliance in the Philippines that contested the 2007 Philippine general election. The alliance's members were in opposition to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It was originally called the United Opposi ...

. She joined the coalition after

JV Ejercito Joseph Victor Gomez Ejercito (; born December 26, 1969), also known as JV Ejercito Estrada or simply JV Ejercito, is a Filipino politician and businessman serving as a Senator since 2022 and previously from 2013 to 2019. He had also served as t ...

, son of deposed President

Joseph Estrada Joseph Ejercito Estrada, (; born Jose Marcelo Ejercito; April 19, 1937), also known by the nickname Erap, is a Filipino politician and former actor. He served as the 13th president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, the 9th vice presi ...

, pulled out as an opposition candidate at his father's behest.

Early life

Sonia Roco was born to then- Congressman Pablo Malasarte of Bilar and homemaker Petra Cubillo of

Calape, Bohol Calape, officially the Municipality of Calape ( ceb, Munisipyo sa Calape; tgl, Bayan ng Calape), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 33,079 people. Located no ...

. A consistent honor student from elementary to college, she was awarded the "Most Outstanding Student of the Philippines" in 1964, placing first (future husband

Raul Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph. They are cognates of the French Raoul. Raul, Raúl or Raül may re ...

placed second) among all college students ranked on the basis of academic excellence, leadership ability, and special achievement. Sonia was also a recipient of the Cardinal Santos Leadership Award, having served as president of the Student Catholic Action (SCA) and the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), a national student organization founded by future Philippine Chief Justice

Artemio Panganiban Artemio Villaseñor Panganiban Jr. (born December 7, 1936) is a Filipino jurist. He served as the 21st Supreme Court Chief Justice of the Philippines from 2005 to 2006. Early life and education Panganiban was born on December 7, 1936, in Mani ...

. Roco holds a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in Education degree ( Magna Cum Laude) from Saint Joseph's College, Quezon City, a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

Communication Arts ''Communication Arts'' is the largest international trade journal of visual communications.A ...

and a

Social Psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the ...

from

Ateneo de Manila University , mottoeng = Light in the Lord , type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution , established = December 10, 1859 , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic ( Jesuits) , academic ...

. She has also taken courses at the Child Development Center of the

University of the Philippines Diliman , image = University of The Philippines seal.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = Official Logo of UP Diliman , motto = Honor and Excellence , established = February 12, 194 ...

Career

As an educator, Sonia co-founded "Our School," a center for early childhood education at the Ateneo Psychology Department. She also established "Live and Learn Pre-school," a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

school in Katipunan,

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was fou ...

. As a theater artist, Sonia trained in Speech and

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Upon returning to the Philippines, she taught, acted in, directed, and produced musicals and , stage plays. Sonia ran in the

2007 Philippine general election Legislative and local elections were held in the Philippines on May 14, 2007. Positions contested included half the seats in the Senate, which are elected for six-year terms, and all the seats in the House of Representatives, who were elected fo ...

, coming in 17th place (

), with 8,457,710 votes. She ran again in the senatorial lineup of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

in the 2010 elections. She took 18th place on the electoral result with 6,290,925 votes.

Personal life

As a devoted wife to

, Sonia actively supported her husband in all his roles as lawyer, congressman, senator,

Secretary of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

presidential candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

, and international parliamentarian. The couple has six children and nine grandchildren. They were bestowed the Golden Parents Award for 1995. In both 1998 and 2004 Philippine presidential campaign, Sonia actively campaigned for her husband and was described by local media as very well-prepared to be a

First Lady of the Philippines The first lady or first gentleman of the Philippines ( fil, Unang Ginang o Unang Ginoó ng Pilipinas) is the courtesy title given to the host or hostess of Malacañang Palace, the residence of the head of state and head of government of the Phil ...

. On August 5, 2005, Raul Roco died of prostate cancer.

Community involvement

Sonia is active in educational, social, cultural, and environmental causes. As past president and founding member of the 20-year-old Women in Nation Building (WIN), she is a sought-after resource person on

women's issues Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...

. In healthcare, she is a frequent guest speaker owing to her first-hand experience as primary

caregiver A caregiver or carer is a paid or unpaid member of a person's social network who helps them with activities of daily living. Since they have no specific professional training, they are often described as informal caregivers. Caregivers most commo ...

to then ailing husband

. Sonia co-founded Saint Michael's Hospice in 1996 to help the poor and terminally ill. She maintains active relations with the Student Catholic Action Leadership Foundation, an organization which strives to revive the SCA among the contemporary Filipino youth. She is the Executive Director of Student Catholic Action of the Philippines. Dr. Patricia Licuanan and Sonia set up the Metro Manila Community Orchestra. With Corazon Alma de Leon and Tony Arevalo, her radio program, “Kapitan del Baryo,” aimed to strengthen

grassroots democracy Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or social level of organization. Grassroots organizations can have a va ...

. Since Sonia studied

Dramatics Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychobiological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also e ...

in the UK, she later enrolled in the writing class of Barbara Gonzalez, composing series of

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

. showbizandstyle.inquirer.net, What’s Sonia Roco up to?

References

External links

Saint Joseph's College of Quezon City

Ateneo de Manila University

Bohol Province, Philippines

Archives Inquirer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roco, Sonia 1944 births Living people Filipino psychologists Filipino women psychologists Filipino Roman Catholics Filipino educators Filipino women medical doctors People from Bohol People from Tondo, Manila Ateneo de Manila University alumni Aksyon Demokratiko politicians United Opposition (Philippines) politicians 20th-century Filipino medical doctors 21st-century Filipino medical doctors 20th-century women physicians 21st-century women physicians 21st-century Filipino women politicians 21st-century Filipino politicians