Chito Miranda’s secret to marriage? ‘We have something larger than ourselves to fight for’

Parokya ni Edgar frontman Chito Miranda, who’s been married to Neri Naig since 2014, has shared the secrets to their marriage.

In a “Share Ko Lang” episode, the singer revealed that he used to live the “rock ’n’ roll” lifestyle before meeting Neri.

“Wala na akong ginawa sa buong buhay ko kundi magbanda, and the novelty of the whole sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll lifestyle wore off eventually eh,” he said.

“Dati ’yung priority ko would be girls who is someone I can party with, e, na someone I can walk to a bar with and pagpasok ko sa bar, dapat lahat ng lalaki titingin, ‘ah, ang ganda ng kasama niya.’ Parang ganoon ang priority ko dati. Siyempre I was a kid, ’no?” he added.

“Noong nakita ko si Neri na independent and strong, nagustuhan ko na, I want this to be my girlfriend na.”

Chito said because of Neri, his views on marriage changed.

“Best decision talaga of my life,” said Chito, who shared some of his learnings on how to make a marriage work.

1. Your priority isn’t yourself anymore.

Chito said that in the past, his priority was simply himself and his own happiness.

“Pero ngayon, I think the simplest way to put it is I found a bigger power than myself, something that is more important than myself which is Neri and my son,” he said.

To show this, Chito shared that he stopped all his vices. “Sa totoo, wala akong pakialam sa health ko dati pero ngayon I need to prioritize my health because I want to grow old and be able to take care of them,” he said.

2. Marriage isn’t supposed to be perfect.

Just because you’re married doesn’t mean it’s all roses and rainbows afterwards.

“It doesn't mean to be perfect naman talaga because it’s not,” said Chito

“Siyempre normal kaming mag-away ni Neri kasi we’re both alphas in our world, e, so we always butt heads,” the singer said. However, Chito shared he knew, at the end of the day, they’ll still be a team.

“Alam namin na at the end of the day, magkakaayos at magkakaayos kami kasi we have something larger than ourselves to fight for, which is our family. I won’t try to mess up pero if I do, I know that my wife will be fighting for me,” Chito said.

“I’m really old but we feel that we’re still kids na naglalaro ng bahay-bahayan and it’s so fun being married. Sobrang enjoy talaga,” said the singer.

3. Regulate your emotions.

Temper, Chito said, was among the things he needed to take care of within the marriage.

“I’m an artist. I’m a songwriter. I thrive on emotion so ’pag sumabog ako ... I embrace it. Kailangan mo i-embrace. Kung sumabog ka, yakapin mo ’yan. Kung malungkot ka, yakapin mo ’yan,” he said. “Pero with this, here’s the skill that I learned na kunwari may something na hindi ka nagustuhan, you relax first.”

He added: “Eventually you’ll be relaxed na lang na you’d be able to communicate nang maayos na hindi ka sumisigaw or hindi ka nagdadrama. So that’s a skill that I learned because you have to learn it eventually when you’re living with someone to calm yourself down.”

Although regulating emotions is a hard skill to practice, he said that he was still able to learn it.

4. Just support each other.

Chito shared that it’s important to simply support each other.

“Support lang for things to work out for both of you, kasi sa pagtagal it will be beneficial for everyone kasi masaya kayo lahat, e, walang sisihan,” he said.

“We try our best to lift each other up kung ano man ’yung gusto niya, as long as it’s good for her.” – Kaela Malig/RC, GMA News