Chito Miranda

Alfonso "Chito" Yanga Miranda, Jr. (born February 7, 1976) is a Filipino singer-songwriter and occasional actor best known as one of the founding members and lead singer for the band Parokya ni Edgar.

Chito Miranda in late 2014

Miranda attended grade school and high school at the Ateneo de Manila University where he met Gab Chee Kee, Vinci Montaner, Jeric Estaco, and Mikko Yap. They formed a garage band during their high school years.

The group was known in school to be class clowns. Normally in shows, they would show up in women’s clothing to entertain victims of earthquakes and typhoons and sing off-key in poetry readings.

They eventually landed the role of front act band for the locally well-known Filipino alternative rock band The Eraserheads. Later on, Buwi Meneses and schoolmate Dindin Moreno joined as bassist and drummer, respectively. When they graduated high school, Estaco and Yap decided to leave the group to pursue other interests. Shortly thereafter, Darius Semaña (lead guitar) joined to complete the sextet.

Originally, Parokya ni Edgar was called 'Comic Relief'. However, they decided to change the name in homage to a Noli me tangere joke in their student days.

Later on, Parokya ni Edgar performed regularly in Club Dredd, one of the famous clubs in Manila during that time. The band slowly gained popularity during the height of the Filipino rock explosion, with the local rock community opening up to the influence of foreign grunge acts such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

Eventually, the late managing director of Universal Records, Bella Dy Tan and Alexis Tan signed them as contract artists after witnessing one of their performances at Club Dredd. The band garnered a triple platinum award for their first album Khangkhungkherrnitz.

Relationships

Miranda is good friends with fellow Filipino artists Kamikazee vocalist Jay Contreras, and rappers Gloc-9 and the late Francis Magalona. Miranda is not a member of the Alpha Kappa Rho fraternity in Ateneo de Manila University batch 1994. Miranda is also notable amongst the public as a fishing enthusiast. Known to be a heavy smoker since high school, Miranda quit smoking after undergoing an executive health check-up in late 2013.

Miranda previously dated actress Kaye Abad from early in 2000 until their breakup in 2009.

In 2014, Miranda married actress Neri Naig twice: in a civil ceremony on 13 December and in a formal wedding in Tagaytay the following day. In August 2015, Miranda confirmed that Naig had suffered from a miscarriage, which would have been their first child. On 19 June 2016 –Father's Day in the Philippines –Miranda announced that he and Naig were expecting a child again.

Sex video scandal

On 3 August 2013, video snippets of Miranda having sexual intercourse with Naig and two other women in three different occasions appeared in YouTube. The video snippets with the other two women were taken down on the same day, but the one with Naig became viral and was shared in different blogs and social media sites. On his Twitter account, Miranda said his room was recently robbed. Among those stolen was his hard disk drive, where photo and video files were stored. On Parokya ni Edgar's Facebook page and on Miranda's personal Instagram account, Miranda expressed his sadness on the leaking of the private video. He also asked for forgiveness from both his and Naig's families. The following month, another graphic clip featuring Miranda and Naig, different from the first video that spread in August, was uploaded on a Facebook page.

With Parokya ni Edgar

• Khangkhungkherrnitz (1996)
• Buruguduystunstugudunstuy (1997)
• Jingle Balls Silent Night Holy Cow (1998)
• Gulong Itlog Gulong (1999)
• Edgar Edgar Musikahan (2002)
• Bigotilyo (2003)
• Halina Sa Parokya (2005)
• Solid (2007)
• Middle-Aged Juvenile Novelty Pop Rockers (2010)
• Pogi Years Old (2016)

As a featured artist

• "Ligaw" with Moonstar 88 (2012)
• "Diwata" with Abra (2014)
• "XGF" with Sponge Cola (2012)

Collaboration

• "Panahon Naman ng Harana" (2014) – with Rico Blanco

• Coming Soon (2013) (Miranda's debut movie)