Ogie Diaz Knows You Hate Him. But Do You Really?

On April 8, Dennis Padilla drove south to Alabang from his mother’s house in Caloocan to walk his daughter with ex-wife Marjorie Barretto, Claudia, down the aisle. Or so he thought. What happened next became national news for days: the ramblings of a distraught “father of the bride-turned-visitor” and the breaking of the silence of a mother and an ill-treated ex-wife. These conflicting confessions eclipsed the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon, Harry Roque’s purported involvement in the “polvoron video,” and the attempted killing of confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.

In the middle of this social media storm is entertainment reporter and talent manager Ogie Diaz, who got the scoop from Padilla, following the actor’s online posts claiming he’s been “mistreated” and “humiliated” at his daughter’s wedding. The showbiz insider was quick. An exclusive phone interview with multi-sourced photos and footage from the Lorenzo-Barretto nuptial came up on the “Ogie Diaz Inspires” YouTube channel the following day, April 9, a regular holiday for the Day of Valor.

Holiday or not, Diaz never stops doing the job he’s done for over 30 years. There was even a time between the late ‘90s to ‘00s, when he worked on multiple talk shows, six out of seven days a week. “Literally Linggo lang ang pahinga ko.” He had to step out of it six months in, after he noticed how fame had affected him, and overworking made him irritable. “Pero buti na-experience ko siya kasi ikinalaki ng ulo ko ‘yon.”

But before he was a big shot showbiz reporter and a vlogger with a combined subscriber count of five million on his two YouTube channels, he was first Cristy Fermin’s assistant.

“1986, galing ako ng high school graduation ko. Inintay ko siya sa labas ng GMA. Pagbaba niya ng taxi, in-approach ko siya, nagpa-picture ako. The following week, dala ko na ‘yong picture para mapapirmahan tapos, I asked her kung puwede niya akong isama sa loob dahil gusto kong manood. [She replied,] ‘Oo naman. Kunwari alalay kita.’” Their cover soon became reality. And when the young Diaz told Fermin he wanted to write, she offered the high school graduate a job as a proofreader of her Mariposa daily entertainment magazines. Without a college education, Diaz made National Bookstore his university, learning everything, from grammar to punctuation, from books he found on its shelves.

Hot off the heels of his Dennis Padilla exclusive, which has over four million views to date, we meet a hoarse Diaz for an interview. Nearly gone is his distinct voice that Filipinos know from films, teleseryes, and talk shows, including the weekly entertainment news talk show Showbiz Lingo, where he started as a segment presenter in the ‘90s.

We talk a little about his call with Padilla, who, in his opinion, expressed sentiments typical of a traditional father, whose only desire was to give the hand of his daughter to her would-be husband. Though, of course, he was not by any measure a typical father. Barretto and Padilla separated in 2007, with their marriage annulled in 2009. Since then, Barretto claims to have raised their three children by herself with little to no support from their father.

Not even the many social media posts alluding to how Barretto and their children did him dirty could make anyone take Padilla’s side. And for platforming what netizens were calling a “toxic” and “manipulative” father, Diaz was criticized. Nothing out of the ordinary for him, except that what were once easily ignorable letters to the editor are now publicized in the comments section. Not that the “Patron ng Hiwalayan” — a title he earned for preempting the biggest celebrity breakups, including that of Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo in 2023 and Bea Alonzo and Dominic Roque in 2024 — ever cared. He doesn’t even read comments on his videos or posts, so he says.

“Iniiwasan ko siyempreng mainis, mapikon, mairita, magalit,” he says. “Basta lagi ko lang sinasaksak sa utak ko na ‘basher’ [sila] e. Hindi sila [nandiyan] para purihin ka. Talagang i-pi-pin down ka nila hanggang sa ma-knockout ka.” But for reasons even he can’t understand, as many bashers as he has, wherever he goes, everyone wants a photo with him. “Sabi ko, ‘Nasaan ‘yong mga bashers? Ano ‘tong mga ‘to, pina-plastic lang ako?’”

Hair and makeup DOROTHY MAMALIO

Read the rest of the story in the second print issue of Rolling Stone Philippines, out now on select newsstands and on Sari-Sari Shopping, or read the e-magazine here.