I just happened to be a passenger of a bus from Pacita bound for LRT and I got curious about a colorful box of what the label said “coco pan.”
I asked my male seatmate what's in the box sitting on his lap. “Pasalubong. Parang mga (Some presents. They’re like) doughnut. Binili ko sa (I bought from) Pacita,” replied Elmer Camata Panatao, a friendly resident of Cabuyao City.
Elmer is a tailor who has a shop he calls Lemar in Makati City. He makes all types of clothes, but mostly office or school uniforms in bulk being ordered by diverse clients from expats to managers.
Panatao, together with his wife, has been sewing dresses for years. Before, he said, he had plenty of employees. “Pero niloko nila kami kaya ngayon, kami na lang ni misis ang gumagawa o kaya ay nagpapagawa kami sa mga kaibigan namin (But they took advantage of us so now, me and my wife are the ones making them or we outsource from our friends),” he disclosed.
For Camata Panatao, a native of Tabaco, Albay, life is like making dresses.
Before he became a successful tailor, he worked with a cousin in a dress shop. “Wala pa akong alam no’n (I didn’t know anything about dressmaking),” he said.
Through experiences, though, he was able to learn a lot in sartorial work.
He also worked in a factory of clothes and textiles but he left it because of low salary.
Then he became an OFW in Brunei, Korea, Qatar and Japan, mostly as a welder.
He was able to save money abroad and when he came back to the Philippines after Korea, he established a tailor shop. “Kasama ko na ang misis ko sa negosyong ito noon pa (I was with my wife ever since I started this business),” informed Elmer who managed to go to Qatar and Japan even when he already had a shop.
For him, life is like making dresses.
Initially, one chooses a cut like choosing what path in life one wants to tread. Then one acquires a clothing material like getting what kind of life one aspires for, sews the dress according to its pattern. It is like fitting time, testing and assessing the pros and cons of a chosen life and finally wearing the dress, making adjustments until it’s not wearable anymore or one makes a new one and follows the same pattern but maintains the loyalty to the process to make a wonderful life.
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