During Garcia's first term in the Philippine Congress, from 1987 to 1992, he became widely known for vigorously and ultimately successfully fighting to keep the petrochemical industry in the province of Bataan.

On August 24, 1990, to emphasize his belief in the truth and importance of what he was fighting for, Garcia took an emphatic leave of absence from the House of Representatives and vowed to resign if the petrochemical plant's transfer was not stopped.

[6] This law enabled the college education systems in Bataan to receive much more in assistance from the national government, amounting to more than 70 million pesos yearly.

During his congressional term from 1998 to 2001, then congressman Enrique 'Tet' Garcia was able to get his bill converting the municipality of Balanga into a city, passed into law in December 2000.

The conversion of Balanga into a component city enabled it to receive a larger share of the revenue allotment from the national government, along with numerous other benefits and advantages.

In the years from 1978 to 2003, there had been a loophole in the BIR check payment system that was taken advantage of by syndicates who were then successful of stealing billions of pesos from the Philippine government.

From the year 2000 to 2003, then-Congressman Enrique Garcia devised and recommended simple solutions on how to stop the BIR check tax payment loopholes.

These recommendations were publicized and taken account of by Philippine Star columnist Federico Pascual in his July 15, 2003, article titled 'Garcia programs can save P100B for gov’t'.

[8] On October 27, 2003, the Department of Finance finally adopted Garcia's recommendations by issuing Clearing House Operating Memo (CHOM) No.

During his tenure as Governor, Garcia and Batangas–2nd district Representative Hermilando Mandanas petitioned Supreme Court of the Philippines for a higher share of national internal revenue taxes for local government units, leading to the Mandanas-Garcia Ruling, named after them.