Dr. Cairo joined the Department of Health-Central Office in 2012 and held various national public health programs, namely: (a) Philippine Cancer Prevention and Control Program, (b) National Dengue Prevention and Control and Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Disease Prevention Program, and (c) Violence and Injury Prevention Program including Road Safety. He was a staunch proponent of Republic Act No. 11215 or the National Integrated Cancer Control Act which gave rise to the National Integrated Cancer Control Program in 2019.

Dr. Cairo represented the Department of Health on many occasions as Plenary Speaker, Keynote Speaker, Resource Speaker, Panelist and Reactor in both local and international events. He represented the country in international trainings, such as the National Cancer Institute’s Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention Course “Principles and Practice of Cancer Prevention and Control” held in 2015 at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, USA; the Second Workshop on Leadership and Capacity Building for Cancer Control held in 2015 in South Korea; the Asia Pacific Cancer Control Leadership Forum Phase III held in 2017 in Singapore, among many others. He was the author of “Next Frontiers in Philippine Oncology and Development in the Entire Cancer Care Continuum from Prevention to Management” published in the Annals of Oncology on October 7, 2019. He was the co-author of “Adapting Care for Older Cancer Patients During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Recommendations from the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) Covid-19 Working Group”, published in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology on July 16, 2020 and “The SIOG Covid-19 Working Group Recommendations on the Rollout of Covid-19 Vaccines among Older Adults with Cancer”, published in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology on March 5, 2021.

Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala is a Broadcast Journalist, Documentary Filmmaker, Impact Producer and Cancer Patient Advocate. She is Co-Founder of Storytellers International Inc, a contributing producer to CNN International, ARD German TV and ARD German Radio, and the Founding President of FilDocs or the Filipino Documentary Society. She has been Jury at the Emmy Awards’ News and Documentary category since 2020. She is also a Member of the Global Impact Producers Transitional Advisory Committee, the Board of Trustees of QCinema, and Doc Society’s Good Pitch Southeast Asian team, Indonesia.

She has produced documentaries for the History Channel, ARD German Television, the Australian Broadcasting Company, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and the Probe Team. She has also reported for the Public Broadcasting Service, Voice of America, and ABS-CBN.

Kara is the Founding President of the ICANSERVE Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps women with breast cancer, and adviser to the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations. She is founding Co-Chairman of the Cancer Coalition Philippines that lobbied for the passage of the National Integrated Cancer Control Act in 2019. She is also a member of the Lancet Commission on Women and Cancer and member of the Global Breast Cancer Initiative.

Kara is co-author of the study “Patient Centricity In Cancer Care” published by the Frontiers in Pharmacology.