Who Is Daphne Oseña-Paez and What Is a 'Press Briefer?'
On Tuesday afternoon (December 20), Malacañang announced the appointment of former television host and news presenter Daphne Oseña-Paez as a new member of the Office of the Press Secretary. She was introduced as the Palace’zs new “press briefer.”
Who and what now?
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Who is Daphne Oseña-Paez?
Daphne Oseña-Paez is perhaps best-known to television audiences for her years in front of the camera hosting lifestyle programs, such as F!, Urban Zone, and Proudly Filipina. Her father, Col. Delio Oseña was a pilot and served under former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. In the 1980s, Col. Oseña moved his family to Canada after he was appointed to a diplomatic position there. But after the 1986 People Power Revolution, he was not allowed to return to the Philippines and the family ended up becoming exiles.
“My father was not allowed to come back because he was a senior military official,” Oseña-Paez told The Philippine Star in a 2009 interview. “It was just sad and strange that he was on the wanted list—and he was simply a pilot and a diplomat when all this heaviness happened. As a teenager it made me confused. I rejected the Philippines altogether; I didn’t have Filipino friends in Canada. But in my adult life, I ended up coming back here—and I was the only one of all my siblings who married a Filipino.”
Oseña-Paez graduated with a Fine Arts History degree from the University of Toronto and worked for the Canadian Urban Institute, which asked her to fly to the Philippines in 1990s to help in the development of the newly created municipality of Guimaras. Her career took a sharp detour when she ended up becoming the weather girl for the primetime newscast The World Tonight. She also became a beat reporter and had previously been assigned to cover Malacañang. It was while she was working in ABS-CBN that she met and eventually married former reporter and TV news producer Patrick Paez. The couple now has three children.
In recent months, she has been writing a regular column in daily newspaper The Manila Times.
During the most recent presidential elections, Oseña-Paez publicly supported the candidacy of eventual winner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., after which she reported getting a bunch of hate messages.
Oseña-Paez was also formerly a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, although her name no longer appears on the current list on the organization’s website.
Appointment as Press Briefer
“Siya ang magiging tagapaghatid ng balita at impormasyon tungkol sa mga gawain at proyekto ni Pangulong Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr.,” Office of the Press Secretary officer-in-charge and Undersecretary Atty. Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil said in a press briefing announcing her appointment.
Oseña-Paez also clarified her official designation as “press briefer” during the briefing.
“My role here is to amplify and to communicate the message of President (Ferdinand) Marcos (Jr.) and the Cabinet, and the government,” she said. “I’m very honored to be communicating the message and programs of this administration, of course, in an accurate and effective way and I will do my best. I will be here to brief you every Tuesday, regularly, after Cabinet meetings.”
The Palace also added that she will not take on the role of a traditional spokesperson as others have done so in previous administrations. During the campaign, Marcos Jr. himself said that he did not intend to appoint a presidential spokesperson and that he would face the media himself.
Oseña-Paez echoed this during the briefing.
“The President will speak for himself. I’m just here to support the Office of the Press Secretary for now, and I look forward to learning a lot about the programs,” she said.
