LOS BAÑOS, Laguna ? He is neither a political candidate nor a media man, but businessman Ding Navasero, 62, is a frequent attendee of political sorties, which he treats as an avenue to market his vests.

He remembers a visit of presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro in Laguna in December, when he dared approach the politician, literally chased him up as the former boarded his chopper, to show a sample of the campaign vest and his calling card.

And he says it was a success that local candidates who witnessed his act placed their orders for campaign vests.

Navasero owns Paparazzi, a vest store he runs since 1983.

Paparazzi

The business name reveals much how Navasero got into the vest venture.

In the early eighties, Navasero worked as a freelance photographer for Mr. & Ms. Magazine and covered tumultuous demonstrations during the Martial Law.

A photographer?s vest, he got for P250 at the time, was his frequent attire.

?You carry lots of stuff in it like the (rolls of) film ? black and white and the colored, and about one to three different cameras. You need to have lots of pockets,? he says.

He says this was the reason he put up his vest store. Through help from designer friends, Navasero procured his first ?de padyak? (manual) sewing machine in 1983. A portion of the capital came from his earnings as a stringer.

His first sewers were a poor family in Diliman, Quezon City, where he was based then. The first vests made were sold to his fellow photographers and demonstrators.

?There were Butch Aquino, Nars Lim, Tingting Cojuangco at the frontline. They would even joke around screaming: ?I still owe you, we don?t want to die here unpaid,?? Navasero says.

From one machine, Navasero later acquired six high-speed machines. A former professor of Garment Technology in UP Diliman and friends helped him train some more housewives in the slum area of the city to make the vests.

When he moved in to an apartment of Boying Remulla, also in Quezon City, Navasero expanded the business and later had 60 manual machines distributed to families in Caloocan and Pasig cities.

The families would make the vests in their homes and supply them to Navasero.

?I had to walk through muddy streets and got threatened twice with a knife when I visited the workers in the squatters? area,? he says.

Some of the machines also got stolen.

But despite the experience, Navasero says the vests became even more a bread and butter while photography and interests in theater arts were relegated into a hobby.

?It?s also providing people a livelihood,? he says.

Back to hometown

In 1991, Navesero returned and settled down in his hometown here.

?I thought to myself that If I were to help others, why not help the people here in my hometown,? he says.

In Laguna, Navasero maintains his 60 sewing machines lent to the poor families living in the villages of Baybayin and Putho.

Over the years, he has procured his own car and a piece of land where he built his home and a three-story factory he opened in 2005.

Marketing was a skill Navasero had even when he was a student. He became the top salesman of subscription for Reader?s Digest and Newsweek and he used his earnings to support his education.

Playing with colors

Navasero would make rounds to different campaign headquarters, especially at the start of the election period.

?I went to the headquarters of Danding Cojuangco and left a vest sample with my calling card. And then they contacted me,? he says.

Creative as he is in directing theater plays too, Navasero applies his artistic skill in designing the vests.

?You can be very creative and I enjoy innovations. A vest can have 18 pockets, with or without a hood, a cooling system, you can play around with the zippers, or put pockets for radio. It can be very functional,? he says.

A Paparazzi vest costs around P400 each.

He also plays with the political party colors, but without letting his choice of candidate get into the business.

?It?s nothing personal. I?m doing what I did when taking pictures of all sides of an event or of a demonstration. I don?t hear, don?t see and I keep my mouth shut,? he says.

In the previous elections, he claimed to have dressed the late Fernando Poe Jr., Danding Cojuangco; senators Panfilo Lacson, Jinggoy Estrada, Dick Gordon and Miguel Zubiri; vice president Noli de Castro and even President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she first ran for Senate.

For the May 2010 polls, Navasero says he has clients from all the running political parties, both in the national and local races.

Asked whom he is voting for, he says ?that?s a secret.?

Navasero says his vest business thrives only during the elections. But during the ?rainy days? or the non-peak season he makes do through consignments with gun stores and boutiques where the Paparazzi vests are on display.