She studied at the Jefferson Elementary School and St. Scholastica's College Manila for about a year while taking religion courses.

She later attended the University of Santo Tomas where she received her doctor of philosophy's degree in social sciences, magna cum laude.

[4] In 1931, she was crowned as the Queen of the Orient of the Manila Carnival (equivalent to today's Miss Philippines Earth or Binibining Pilipinas), 23 years after her mother's coronation.

She then became the third female senator of the Philippines, after Geronima Pecson in 1947 and Pacita Madrigal-Warns in 1955, and the lone woman in the Fifth Congress.

652 restoring the old school calendar to June and excluding the hot summer months which promote sleepiness and thus, may not be conducive for learning, which was changed earlier by Education Secretary Alejandro Roces.

3765 or the "Truth in Lending Act of 1963", which extends protection to consumer buying goods on an installment plan and enabling credit transactions.

[6] In 1983, she wrote a book about her mother entitled Legacy: Pura Villanueva Kalaw, Her Times, Life, and Works, 1886-1954.

[7] In 1984, she translated from Spanish to English her father Teodoro's work Aide-de-Camp to Freedom, in which she inserted a chapter about former president Manuel Quezon.

The precursor agencies of BRMPT and MTRCB, Philippine Board of Censorship for Motion Pictures was headed first by her father after its creation in 1929.

She also headed the Municipal Symphony Orchestra, Quezon City Girl Scouts Council, and the Philippine Women's Writers Association.

[citation needed] She had three farms in Lipa, Batangas, the birthplace of her father, where she cultivated black pepper, corn, ipil-ipil, and coffee.