Dada is known as an action person who makes things happen. When she was president of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) from 1994-1996, she wanted “a sense of direction” not only for her tenure but on long term basis for the PAFP. She led the first five-year strategic plan of the PAFP and planning is now in its fourth cycle. When WONCA Asia Pacific region made the Manila Declaration, in 1993, she launched the PAFP community-based environmental protection project. This project is still in place.
When the Philippine National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) was enacted into law in 1995, she headed several workshops with various stakeholders on a variety of pertinent subjects. First, was the workshop on competencies of gatekeepers, in 1996. After this, she continued to advocate for universal health care, with inpatient and outpatient benefits given simultaneously; as well as patient registration and gate-keeping. She helped create an infrastructure for a strong family medicine, by championing quality assurance among PAFP members, developing referral mechanisms with the various specialties, and promoting financing of the out-patient component of the NHIP towards its full implementation.
Currently, she heads the PAFP Task Force Committee on universal health care, primary care benefits with gatekeeping and family registration. She encouraged the PAFP research committee to engage in Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT) research, which has been operational in the Philippines and Asia Pacific, since 2009. With Universal Health Care as the centerpiece program of the government, family registration, gatekeeping and primary care benefits are all the more strengthened. It took 16 years for this to happen and the PAFP continuous to work for recognizing family physicians as the entry point of care.