Why Arci isn’t ready to settle down just yet

Arci Muñoz

I still want to be a rock star,” declared Arci Muñoz, who is the vocalist of the heavy-metal band Philia. “I want to tour abroad with my band. This has to be outside the Philippines, because I know our kind of music isn’t appreciated here that much.”

Arci has been with Philia since 1999, “and we will not change our sound just to conform to the taste of the majority.”

This is also why Arci, at 30, shook her head furiously when we asked whether or not she was already considering settling down with Chinese businessman Anthony Ng, her boyfriend for over a year now.

“Don’t get me wrong—
when I get into a relationship, I always pray that it will be for keeps. I don’t date a guy just for the heck of it,” she pointed out. Arci started going out with Anthony, who is eight years older, over a year ago. “I now know why God gave him to me. I listen to him.”

“He’s the serious type while I’m the crazy one. He is my Nathan, and I’m his Dani,” the actress said, referring to her character in the romantic-comedy series “Since I Found You” on ABS-CBN.

Piolo Pascual plays Nathan, who is initially Dani’s boss before falling in love with her and marrying her at the end of the series. The program, which airs its final episode tonight, also features Alessandra de Rossi and Empoy Marquez.

“In a way, we’re balanced. He is into business, while I’m into the arts. He does all the boring things and leaves the more interesting stuff to me,” Arci quipped, adding that Anthony would often talk to her about the importance of planning for the future “since work in show biz isn’t forever. He said I have to have a backup plan.”

Arci did say that the wedding scene was her most favorite in “Since I Found You.” She admitted that she was so moved by it that she cried real tears. “I couldn’t explain what I was feeling. I was happy but sad at the same time. It was at that point when I felt that the series was really ending,” she recalled. “I saw all the cast members while I was walking down the aisle, including Tita Carmi (Martin, who plays her mother). I saw flashbacks of the time when we were just starting the series.”

Arci said she had hoped that the show would run until September. “But Papa P’s (Piolo’s nickname) schedule is already fixed until the end of the year. He will leave for Marawi soon,” she explained. Piolo will begin working on the war film, “Children of the Lake,” this week.

“Plus, the story really has to end—we can’t keep stretching it,” she shared with the Inquirer. “Papa P and I are planning to go on an out-of-the-country trip together soon. That means we can still hang out. He also promised that we’d do another project, but a more serious one.”