[citation needed] Santos has been the chairman and chief executive officer of IBC-13 Broadcasting Company, and vice president and member of the board of directors of the Manufacturer's Bank.

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).

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.

[citation needed] Santos is the chairman and chief executive officer of the International Academy of Management and Economics (IAME), a business school in Makati, Philippines.