Dr. Salvador Araneta is remembered as an ardent nationalist, constitutionalist, statesman, civil servant, lawyer, educator, economist, businessman, industrialist, environmentalist, and philanthropist. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1933 and 1971, founder and twice president of PHILCONSA.
Araneta served as Secretary of Economic Coordination under President Quirino, Secretary of Agriculture under President Magsaysay, and as member of the National Economic Council.

As an educator he founded Gregorio Araneta University Foundation, the first private agricultural school after World War II, endowed the university with one sixth of his personal wealth and turned it into a foundation. He also founded FEATI University to train engineers and mechanics for Far Eastern Air Transportation, Inc., the first airline that operated after the war also serving China and San Francisco. Araneta pioneered in the flour industry (RFM Corporation), in soy bean extraction (Republic Soya), in the manufacture of electric motors (Feati Industries), animal feeds (AIA Feed Mills), animal vaccines (AIA Biological Laboratories). He was co-founder of NEPA (National Economic Protectionism Association), PRRM (Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement), and the White Cross, an orphanage.

Among his awards were: "Economic Leader of the Year 1953", "Businessman of the Year 1964", both given by the Business Writer's Association of the Philippines and "Social Scientist of Year 1965" by the National Science Development Board. He was also acknowledged by the Chamber of Filipino Retailers as the "Father of the Idea of the Filipinization of the Retail Trade". He is responsible for the Filipinization of Credit, a protective measure limiting foreign borrowing from local banks which remains in effect today. U.S. Congressman James B, Utt, speaking before Congress, referred to Araneta as "probably the best posted man there on the economics of his country". NVM Gonzales said of him "Salvador is among the most constructive, if not the most militant fiscalizer of the Filipino's long-planned program for economic and political independence . . . utilized the law as an ivory tower from which he could view the goings on in the nation, and keep a keen critical and unbiased eye . . ."

Araneta, a visionary, dedicated his life to uplift the moral and social values of society and sought property ownership and capitalism for all. These he embodied in a draft constitution (The Bayanikasan Constitution published in 1980 to be adopted in 10 to 20 years.)