Garcia directed "Magdusa Ka" in 1986 and bagged back-to-back Luna Awards for Best Director for another film he directed a year after entitled "Saan Nagtatago and Pag-ibig" in 1987. He also acted opposite Fernando Poe, Jr. in "Kapag Puno na ang Salop" (1987) and its sequel, "Ako ang Huhusga" (1989) which Poe also directed. The Metro Manila Film Festival Award for Best Director was conferred to him for the film "Imortal" in 1989. He became a FAMAS Hall of Famer as a director in 1991., and was named "All Time Favorite Actor of RP Movies" at the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation on March 21, 1992. Garcia did the film "Boyong Mañalac: Hoodlum Terminator" as the lead actor in 1991 and won the FAMAS Best Actor plum for the film a year after, winning multiple times and non-consecutively in the next coming years of the decade for different movies including "Sambahin Ang Ngalan Mo" (1998), "Bakit May Kahapon Pa?" (1996) and "Mariano Mison... NBI" (1997).