Immediately after taking office, he outraged the world with his statement that "many more should have died" in the Santa Cruz massacre that had taken place shortly before.

[1] During Soares second term in office from September 1997, his involvement in corruption cases in connection with the family-owned company Anak Liambau Group became so massive,[2] that the Deputy Governor Suryo Prabowo resigned in protest in 1998.

With the intervention of INTERFET and takeover by the United Nations (UNTAET), which later led East Timor to independence, Soares was deposed.

Frans Lebu Raya, the deputy governor of East Nusa Tenggara province laid a wreath sent by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who did not personally attend the funeral.

Other important dignitaries who attended the funeral included several highly controversial figures from the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, including retired Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, retired Indonesian Major General Zacky Anwar Makarim, former deputy army chief of staff Kiki Syanakri, and West Papua Governor Abraham Octavianus Atururi.