He was former Secretary General of the Liberal Party and served as representative of Bukidnon province in Northern Mindanao to the House of Representatives for three consecutive terms (1998-2007). Apart from sponsorship of major environmental legislation on clean water, solid waste management and biodiversity protection, he was the principal author of the groundbreaking Clean Air Act that has become a model of environmental legislation in Asia. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Ecology and Vice-Chairman of the Committees on Science and Technology, Human Rights, and Foreign Relations of the House of Representatives. He has represented the Philippines in numerous international forums, including the United Nations Special Assembly on HIV/AIDS and the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, where he served as the Deputy Secretary General.
An academic and civil society stalwart, he earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii as an East West Center Scholar. He received a BA in Political Science from the University of the Philippines, an MA in Public Affairs (International Relations and Political Studies concentration) from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and attended the special programs on Leaders in Development Program (1999) and Environmental Economics (2002) at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University. In 2004 he was named the first Filipino World Fellow of Yale University.
Neric is now Associate Professor at the Asian Institute of Management and the Ateneo de Manila University. He is the Vice President for Mindanao of the Liberal Party. He continues to be active in microfinance, rural development and environmental protection projects in his native Bukidnon.