MANILA, Philippines - Unlike other celebrities in the country who have a slew of house help at their beck and call, Drew Arellano and Iya Villania do things on their own. They enjoy being a do-it-yourself couple since they tied the knot in January last year.
In fact, puttering around the condo unit makes them stick together despite their small differences.
“I’m very happy,” a beaming Iya tells the press in an intimate interview for her first public affairs show, Mundo ni Juan sa Japan, which aired last Saturday on GMA 7.
Give and take a few adjustments, Iya and Drew are still in honeymoon mode.
“Sobrang exciting hanggang ngayon. It’s gonna be like this for a while. Ten years na kami magkasama (referring to the time they were boyfriend-girlfriend) pero hindi kami nag-live in,” states Iya.
Chastity before marriage has upped the couple’s eagerness to be together, now that they can do things they kept themselves from doing while they were still single.
One of them is long travels. Iya’s mom kept her daughter from taking prolonged travels with Drew when she was still single. Three or four days with a group of travel buddies was okay.
Iya understood and obeyed her mom.
Now, the Kapuso host is thrilled each time she and Drew go to Japan, Europe (where the latter proposed), Hawaii, California and others.
Iya is just as content keeping their place squeaky clean, even if it sometimes means washing dishes all by herself at the end of a busy day.
She recalls going home one night to find her husband sleeping oh-so-soundly, while a pile of unwashed dishes lay waiting at the kitchen sink. Iya didn’t have the heart to wake Drew up, so she rolled her sleeves, resisted the temptation to join him in Dreamland and buckled down to work.
Then, she wrote on the kitchen whiteboard, “Honey, I love you, but please remember to wash your mess kasi pagod din ako (because I’m tired).”
Next day, a repentant Drew approached Iya in the restroom and promised not to make the same mistake again.
The rest of their days, however, are fun where Iya and Drew end up laughing at each other’s quirks.
One time, the Silka endorser says, she wanted to use another brand of soap (not the one she’s endorsing) and told Drew about it.
“He got angry! He asked me to get the Silka bar and threatened to step out of the shower to get it from the box under the sink,” Iya recalls.
He even said, tongue in cheek, “I want a divorce!”
The “threat” didn’t bother Iya the way thoughts of a floor wet with puddles from the shower did.
And then it occurred to her. She and Drew were arguing over a bar of soap. The couple ended up laughing till it hurt.
Those little things spice up their marriage, whose first anniversary last Jan. 31 Drew and Iya celebrated with a Bed and Breakfast affair in Tagaytay.
“It’s nice that we have owned each other for so long, we know how to handle conflicts,” observes Iya.
If she had her way, Iya would like to wait until middle of next year to have her first baby. But she knows God might have other plans and Iya doesn’t mind giving birth earlier.
After all, she explains, it’s better to start expanding the family earlier than later.
The couple’s respective parents, however, are willing to wait since the Villanias and Arellanos have babies to dote on for now.
Besides, Iya and Drew are having the time of their lives just being there for each other. Iya tells Drew about what she learned as host of Mundo ni Juan sa Japan, which featured the life of migrant Filipinos in the Land of the Rising Sun.
“It’s my first time to host a public affairs show. So I adjusted in terms of speaking Tagalog. I’m kenkoy, so I had to tone down a bit to make it more appropriate.”
Most of all, Iya learned to be more sensitive to others because of the touching segments.
Her close encounter with Filipina entertainer-turned-entrepreneur Abby Watabe for Mundo ni Juan reminded Iya of her own mother, who had to take on two jobs so she and her siblings can go to a private school.
“My parents had to work hard. My mom is extra careful with my money because she doesn’t want us and our future kids to experience what she did.”
Yes, Iya is not just learning her lessons well. Most importantly, she’s having fun along the way.