In the early 2000s, Bong Lapira, one of the country’s early and most influential television newscast anchors, interviewed Fr. James B. Reuter, SJ, who at that time was already recognized as preeminent in the field of communications and theater arts in the Philippines. Their conversation covered a wide range of topics and issues familiar to both professionals who were deeply involved in the broadcast industry. The list of familiar names dropped in their exchange of stories read like a who’s who in Philippine history, politics and business.

Quite evident are Bong Lapira’s authoritative delivery and polished diction, reminding the viewer of “the good old days” of Philippine broadcasting when voice quality and gravitas were paramount. One cannot help but be simply impressed by Father Reuter’s almost photographic recollection of historical events and his spellbinding storytelling ability. His deep compassion for Filipinos and love of his adopted country shine through.

This article is the transcript of the video produced by Rewinder Channel for YouTube on August 21, 2020. It features the hour-long interview and includes testimonials by broadcast journalists, producers, and performers, June Keithley, Jose Mari Chan, Sienna Olaso, Reuben Nunez, Joji Isla, Ambassador Oscar Villadolid, and ends with a video clip of Subas Herrero leading a group of friends singing a Broadway song with Father Reuter conducting. Listed in the video credits are: Dik Trofeo – Director and Photography; Nick Tayag – Writer; Bong Lapira – Line Producer; and Vizmalau E. Bonalos – Supervising Producer. In this transcript, Bong Lapira is identified as BL and Fr. James Reuter, SJ as JR. The approximate video time marks are noted as well.

Rewinder Channel highlights significant characters in Filipino history, through films produced and directed by Dik Trofeo, a film maker and cinematographer. Previously known as Project 1635, it serves as a callback to the film and tape days of Philippine video documentation and cinema.

Introduction

Bong Lapira: [0.00} The man we are about to meet is indeed a singular human being, a teacher, a coach, a spiritual advisor, a man of God who is looked up to as a role model, whose precepts and principles have guided, molded and transformed the lives of so many men and women he has touched. In a time of uncertainties, his beliefs, convictions, his words have become sort of a golden rule.

He has such a giving nature that his concern for others have become a habit of the heart.  And he literally goes through life in a habit. The cassock of a golden ear member of the Society of Jesus. His name?  James B. Reuter. The man with a golden habit.

James B. Reuter was born on May 21, 1916, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA. The first child and eldest son of Marguerite Collins and James Reuter. Molly his mother named him after his father who was a policeman in his hometown.

The call to priesthood

BONG LAPIRA : How did you become a priest?

FATHER JAMES B. REUTER, SJ: [2:08] Going way back when I was seven years old, in grade two, the nun in the class used to give what they called morning talks. And we’d encourage her to do that because as long as she talked, we didn’t have lessons. But one morning she was talking about the missions.

And that struck me as being very beautiful, so I began to say, I will be a missionary. This was at the age of seven. This was before I thought of becoming a priest and before I thought of, before I ever heard of the Society of Jesus.

Then later I went to St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City where I met the Jesuits and there I had a professor who kept saying, “Does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and suffer the loss of his immortal soul?” And my mother had been praying for vocation, either for me or for my sister. She was praying this when she was making the Jubilee, visiting many churches and praying for vocation for the baby in her womb or for me. Well, my sister came close but didn’t enter so I guess it came to me from the prayer of my mother.

But what is interesting is when I got into the Novitiate at Wernersville, Pennsylvania. I did a little survey among those who entered with me. And I said, when did you know that you wanted to be a priest? The average age at which they knew they wanted to be a priest was seven.

So, I think that sentence in the Gospel is just true, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” I think that’s it. I think a priest really has a vocation. Some people thrive in priesthood, and some don’t. But I think that if God wants you to be a priest, He lets you know about that very early, and if you hear the voice and you answer it, you do get more fulfillment from the priesthood than you would find anywhere else. So, when you say calling, yeah, I think that’s really it.

BL: [04:08] But you made the call at seven. 

JR: No, I heard it. I heard it. I think the call came from God, and I just heard it. was all. It kind of fluctuated after that. When I was in high school, I was debating what should I do? Should I marry, or should I stay single, or should I enter the priesthood? And eventually, it seemed to me right out of high school that the priesthood was the best thing.

But the real reason was we all have to die and stand before God to be judged. If that moment is coming, is it not wise to prepare for it? I mean, should you not use your life as best you can for the service of God? And everybody else is in the same boat. Should you not try to help them for this moment which is going to be so important for all of us? So, I think that was what drove me to it or called me to it. But I think basically it is God calling. I think it’s that. 

BL: What do you think about those who have entered and suddenly they go through a very painful process of having to decide that it is not for them that they have to leave? 

JR: Yeah. I do not believe in the temporary vocation. I don’t believe in that. I think that if God calls you, he will give you the grace to survive. I don’t think it happens suddenly. I think what happens is that men or women begin to neglect the tools, the natural helps that God has given them to survive. And that gradually they’re the not only the fervor dies off, but the hardships become so painful to them that I think really what you’re saying is true. Physically, they can’t do it anymore. I grant that. I grant that it comes to the point where no one is held to the impossible. I can’t do this anymore. I mean, that’s what Bob Garron said.

BL: I would say, Father, maybe you weren’t called at all. Maybe you just thought that you were called.

JR: [06: 27] It’s possible that you made a mistake at the beginning. That is possible. I would presume that. Boy, see because when you take your vows. Boy, you have more time to think about it than those who get married. I mean, those who get married, well, they’ve known each other for one year. But for me to be a priest, I was 12 years in studies before I was ordained.

BL; Twelve years of engagement?

JR: Yeah, yeah. Knowing. Well, of course, the week before ordination, the nuns always say, hope you will always be as happy as you are now. But boy, the week before ordination is agony.

I was up at night thinking. I can’t do it; I can’t do it. You think of all the responsibility that there is for a priest. I mean somebody putting their whole life in your hands. So, you wake up at midnight and think, I can’t do it now. Should I wake up the rector right now and tell him or should I wait for the morning? I mean that’s the way I felt. Everybody is scared silly when they are ordained because the obligation is so heavy. Um, it’s true, it varies. But I think that if God stays with you, for all those years before ordination and then you’re ordained, I think that’s kind of a proof that God did give you the grace.

Assignment in the Philippines

BL: [07:40] So what was your first assignment in the Philippines, Father?

JR: Well, I was coming really to study philosophy because after four years in the Society of Jesus, I had two years of novitiate, two years of juniorate, and then we had three years of philosophy. So, I was studying at Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches with Horacio de la Costa and Pablo Guzman Rivas and many other great men. We spent one year at Novaliches and then they moved the philosophate to Baguio. And then I studied for two years in Baguio, right opposite the city hall. We took a place that was called at that time the Baguio Hotel and that was destroyed during the war.

In 1941, I began to teach in the Ateneo de Manila. I took over the class of Father Mulry. And that was, in my class, was J. V. Cruz, who applied for the Society of Jesus on that year and was accepted. But he was held up because he was only 17 and then eventually did not enter.

BL: We’re talking about the same J. V. Cruz?

JR: J. V. Cruz applied to the Society of Jesus and was accepted. He was. And in his class was Larry Henares, Mon Ylanan, if you remember, he was one of the first heads of Procter and Gamble, and Jose Laurel, Mariano Laurel, Jose Yulo, Aurelio Montinola, and many others, it was a very, very good class.

BL: The names you mentioned are all Who’s Who, appearing on the Who’s Who of the Philippine roster.

JR: Even more than that, the play that I directed that year, 1941, helping us with it, you know, the voice that we used for narration was Lamberto Avellana. Doing music was Coco Trinidad. Working with us at that time was Soc Rodrigo. And in that play, you had Jerry Montemayor. 

BL: Federation of Free Farmers?

JR: Yes, and Gerry Rojas, and Larry, and of all things, Ramon Cabrera, who was such a magnificent hero during the war. 

BL: When you came to the Philippines, you went into the academe, but how come more communication and arts?

JR: Well, I think even from the beginning, it was that way. My assignment, when I went into Regency at the Ateneo, was split. I was teaching sophomore AB in the morning, but in the afternoon, I was supposed to write for the Commonweal Hour. Now the Commonweal Hour at that time, was no TV. 1941 there was no TV. And the Commonweal Hour was kind of the voice of the Catholic Church at that time. We were on two hours on Sunday night, seven to eight in English, eight to nine in Tagalog.

[10:41] And the star in the English show was Leon Maria Guerrero. The Ambassador. The Ambassador who translated so beautifully the works of Jose Rizal. Jess Paredes, Narciso Pimentel Jr., and then in Tagalog, Manny Colayco, Soc Rodrigo. That’s where, that’s how he became senator. He was just popular. What Leon Maria Guerrero did in English, Soc did in Tagalog and then the Tagalog Hour. Manny Colayco was the hero who died in UST. He was the first man in the liberation, and he was shot and killed.

BL: What was the, shall I say, social, economic, political scenario at that decade?

President Quezon in Ateneo

JR: At that time, Quezon was coming around to the Ateneo, as I remember, at least once every two weeks. And he would review the troops on Friday afternoon. We’d have a passing review, and he’d be standing there, you know, exactly the way you see the pictures of Quezon. He always stood very straight. And then he came to all of our shows. What was interesting about that time, when you say, that it was friendly, the whole thing was friendly, and Quezon would come with the two girls to almost everything that the Ateneo did. We had a presidential box.

[11:58] And we had a scholastic named Jaco McCarron. Many might remember him for he was a very, very stormy teacher. But he was prefecting outside in the lobby, you know, and he heard these two girls in the ladies’ room laughing and making noise.

So he waited outside. He didn’t dare go into the ladies’ room. And when they came out, he said, “Have you no breeding? Were you brought up in a barn, disturbing all these people?” And they were listening very, very quietly and said, “We’re very sorry.” And then they went into the theater. And then later the rector came and said to Father McCarran, “Now, please, you bring water up to the presidential box. The president wants water.” So, he came up with water for the presidential box. And the two girls that he had scolded were Baby and Nini Quezon.

So, he left the water and went away, they tell it. He went out of the theater, went right up into his room and went to bed. He didn’t appear anymore after that. But Quezon would come to the Ateneo to talk to Father Mulry, old Joe Mulry, because he got that, he took a lot of ideas from Father Mulry for his “Young man, go to Mindanao.” That really sprang from Joe Mulry.

BL: Even then, Father, there was a push to move down to the south.

JR: Oh, oh boy. It was the big thing. And many of our Ateneo boys went down there. I was on the radio at that time. It was a whole afternoon that was consecrated to that. And President Quezon would come on our program quite often. The way he did it, he would listen in Malacañang. And then after the show, they’d give him a mic and he would comment. It was kind of fireside chat, before Franklin Delano Roosevelt began his fireside chats. And once Horacio de la Costa had a little episode in a story about the revolution where Quezon himself saved himself with adobo.

[13:59] And then somehow or rather, he had adobo and he gave it to the Spanish soldiers and while Spanish soldiers were eager with the adobo, he escaped. But the censor said, “Oh no, no, no, don’t say that the president saved himself with the adobo, sounds, you’re making a comedian out of the president.” But then, he gave it to somebody else in the story, reluctantly because he knew that it was true. But when Quezon came on, he said, “You know that story about the adobo. That really reminded me of something that happened to me.” And then he told the story exactly as it happened. So, the feeling of the church and state in those days, (it was) very close, very pleasant. No, no sense of conflict.

BL: In radio at that time, who are the names you can recall? Coco Trinidad?

JR: [14:48] Coco Trinidad was our music man. He was strong. Leon Maria Guerrero was a newscaster. He used a pen name. He used a nom de plume, Ignacio Javier, Ignatius and Xavier Pan.

BL: Norman Reyes?

JR: Oh, Norman Reyes, he was the voice of freedom. Right. The first voice of freedom was Leon Maria Guerrero. But then when Leon got nervous about his wife, who was in Manila, Norman Reyes took over. And Norman Reyes was the voice of freedom when Bataan fell.

BL: We end 1939. Right. What are the thoughts, more important events that come back now if you look? 39 going into 40. This was the war, Father, no?

Ateneo during World War II

JR: [15:26] Well, the war did not break until the end of 41. It was a war going on in Europe. And we would listen to the news. But it did not hit us until December the 8th, 1941.

BL: After Pearl Harbor.

JR: Well, it hit us with Pearl Harbor. See, that was the feast of the Ateneo. I was teaching there in Padre Faura. And on that day, we had a band playing in the schoolyard. We had bunting everywhere. I was singing with the Glee Club, with the Jesuit scholastics in the auditorium. When word came that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and then that Baguio, that Clark Air Base, and then Baguio had been bombed and then all the boarders went home and the boys, many of them from my class. They went into training. It was Alfred Xerez-Burgos, who was kind of the top sergeant there, and Jaime Claparols, and we were blackout in those days, blackout, the beginning days of the war.  And Ramon Cabrera from my class, he went to Bataan, many of the boys went to Bataan when they didn’t have to go. He was in the death march.

He was in Capas and when he was released, he went into the underground and the Japanese picked him up and brought him into Fort Santiago and wanted him to give the names of his friends, the names of his friends who died, I mean who were working with him in the underground. And he said, “I don’t know any names.” So, to make him talk they beat him in the mouth with a gun butt, they broke out all his teeth, they smashed the nose and still he wouldn’t talk.

They smashed the jaw and then they took him out to the cemetery and gave him a shovel and said dig your own grave and he said dig it yourself and then they bayoneted him and he fell he dropped to his knees. But he looked up at the Japanese who had bayoneted him and smiled and then he fell. And Lacson who was there and so, he was telling me, whenever Ramon was knocked down in football, he was the halfback left half, I would watch him because when he got up off the ground he would smile, I knew that he was hurt. So, when he was bayoneted, he looked up at the Japanese and smiled.  And at the communion breakfast afterwards, Jess Paredes said, “You know, I’m very grateful to Mon because one of the names he wouldn’t give was mine.”

[18:07] And then one of the boys in my class held up his hand said one of the names he wouldn’t give was mine. And gradually all the boys in my class who had been in the underground said mine. And then Jess said, you know, I think Ramon Cabrera is a martyr of charity, greater love than this no man has. That he laid down his life for his friends.  And that was true. That was really true. The boys in the, the Filipino has courage. That’s it. The Filipino has courage. It comes out when the pressure is on. You know, like Gregorio del Pilar. Del Pilar was no braver than Ramon Cabrera.

BL: Well, what happened to the academic world father? It stood still?

JR: Well, it stood still in the Ateneo. The Ateneo stopped. Stopped. No more classes. Everybody went home. Other schools continued. UP continued. Some of the Catholic schools stopped and some of them continued. In the Society of Jesus, we went into theology. We were studying theology while we were prisoners of the Japanese. And it was a little tough, a little tough because we were not getting enough to eat. We were really not getting enough to eat. You could measure it by this. When Joe Maxey started the war in 1941 on December the 8th, he weighed 240 pounds. When we were picked up by the paratroopers, from Los Banos in 1945 and he was weighed at Muntinlupa. He weighed 118. He had lost 122 pounds, more than half his weight, in those three years. But it happened so slowly that we didn’t even notice it. We didn’t notice it. We lost a number of men during the war.

BL: How long was the incarceration, Father, about three years?

JR: Well, we were taken at midnight on January the 1st, 1942. We were released on February the 23rd, 1945 from Los Banos. So, it was two years and two months actually under the Japanese.

BL: What was the first order of business right after you came out of the prisons, since when the Americans came?

JR: [20:13] The first, well, they kept us in Muntinlupa. I’m a graduate of Muntinlupa, alumnus of Muntinlupa. They kept us there for about six weeks because there was a perimeter. They had a wall, and the war was not over yet.  The soldiers were fighting the Japanese from the wall. The first thing that happened to us was we were repatriated on a troop ship to the United States.  And I stayed there, I finished theology in the United States, was ordained there, studied radio and television in Fordham and came back after three years. So, I went back to the States in 45, returned in 48.

BL: So that’s the reason why the impact you made in the Philippine scene is more in communications and arts.

JR: Ah, yeah.

Assignment in Ateneo de Naga

BL: I see. You came back here after three years. And your assignment was in Ateneo, Father?

JR: [21:09] No, my assignment in 1948 was Naga. I taught for four years in the Ataneo de Naga. In those days, we did everything. I was teaching in the high school and the college. I was coaching basketball. I enjoyed that and directing the Glee Club and moderating dramatics and we formed the Cathedral Players. We were playing on radio. There was a little radio station there. Vero Perfecto came down there for a while and then we were touring the Bicol region with stage plays and that was interesting because we would play in a place like Iriga, Nora Aunor she was a young girl at that time.

And everybody would come out, every man, woman, child and dog when we played. We’d play in the plaza, see. There was no admission charge. And those were very good days. In 1952, I was transferred to the Ateneo de Manila, and then I taught there for the next eight years, till 1960.

Return to Ateneo de Manila

BL: This was the transfer from Padre Faura to Loyola Heights.

JR: From Padre Faura to Loyola.

BL: Oh now, I was thinking about Father Donelan. 

JR: Jim Donelan was teaching in Davao. 

BL: I see.

JR: [22:27] He had a couple of big athletes who were with him, but the Ateneo de Naga beat the Ateneo de Davao in those days. You were hitting it exactly right. Jim Donelan was a scholastic when I was a priest, and we had a kind of an All-Ateneo meet, and we played in Manila in the new gym, which at that time was the first big building built on the new Ateneo campus.

BL: Father Kunkel was there too.

JR: Nick Kunkel, right, very, very much.

BL: I was coming down from Baguio then, from St. Louis, and he was the first one. I met here and I was wondering, I said, I come from the mountains. I’ll go here to the mountains again.

JR: See at that time… Before the new Ateneo, the new Ateneo in 1952, we were based in Padre Farua and the man who had such genius, who bought the new campus was Father Masterson. Now, they called him Benny Masterson because when he entered the Society of Jesus, he was the youngest and so they called him Benjamin. So, he was called Benny Masterson. I think you were called Benny once upon a time for the same reason.

President Manuel Roxas, his wife Trining and Fr. Masterson

The thing that I remember about those days in Padre Faura, just before we moved, Father Masterson got a letter from Doña Trining Roxas, who was the wife of the President Manuel Roxas, saying, “You have a boy in your school who is calling himself Manuel Roxas Jr. I want you to expel that boy or make him change his name.” So, Father Masterson investigated and then he wrote back, “I’m very, very sorry that I cannot do what you’re asking because I have checked. He’s one of the best boys in the school. He’s a candidate for valedictorian and I can’t ask him to change his name because he’s really carrying the name of his father. I’m very sorry about this, but I just can’t do it.” 

And so by return messenger came a letter, “If you do not expel that boy or make him change his name, I will close the Ateneo and all of the American Jesuits will be deported.” So, Benny Masterson called us. I was there at that time. And he said, he called the Americans and he said, “We’re in a little trouble. I mean, I don’t see how in conscience I can do this and maybe we’ll have to close the school and we’ll all be deported.” Now, it’s a little disenchanting but the American Jesuits, at that time, they said, “Go, Benny, go! If we’re deported, we’ll see the Rockettes. It’s okay.” So, Benny wrote back and said, “I’m really very, very sorry that we can’t do this. If you close the Ateneo, there’s nothing we can do. If you deport the American Jesuits, there’s nothing we can do.” And then he waited.

Nothing happened. But about two weeks later a letter came from Malacañang. Now I saw that letter with my eyes, so I knew it existed. It was not the big stationery. It was you know the little one about, you know, six by eight something like that.  Malacañang stationery written in longhand, longhand. And the letter said, “Dear Father Masterson, thank you for the courage that you have shown in defending my son. He is a good boy. He’s never done any harm to anyone. He said, my wife is hurt and when she is hurt, she sometimes says things that are a little extreme. The criminal in this piece is me. I am now doing penance for all my sins. But I want you to know that so long as I am president of the Philippines, the Ateneo will not be closed, and the American Jesuits will not be deported.” Signed, Manuel Roxas. It was all on one page. I saw that letter with my eyes, but they can’t find it at the moment. Benny Masterson died and he had so many papers that they haven’t even gone through them all yet. But I know that letter exists. I saw it. And Manny, of course, was my friend later. He was very, very good boy.

Testimonials

BONG LAPIRA: The mediocre teacher tells us. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates, but the truly great teacher inspires. Today, Father Reuter is recognized by many people, some of whom are luminaries on stage, television, radio, or at the top echelons of government, business and industry, as the person who discovered their talents, inspired them, trained them, disciplined them and thereby launched them into life.  Like Michelangelo, he sees inside a stone. He does not only see, he makes other people see. He had knowledge and he let others light their candle from it. 

JUNE KEITHLEY: [27:29} No matter what happened, even if a family member died, no matter what problems he was going through, when it was time for the show to go on, you were on. I remember once, many, many years afterwards, we were doing a show in Meralco Theater and there was a brownout. And the brownout lasted for a very long time. It was so amusing because right in the heart of Meralco, on the Meralco stage, there was a brownout. And it was my time to go on. And after some time, I couldn’t stand it because I knew that something had to be done. Because people were getting edgy. So, I went out on the stage. The writers said, “On.” I went out on the stage. So, with flashlights and they just had a camera playing, I started and I went on and I started to sing and to do my act.

JOSE MARI CHAN: I think no one has touched more lives. No one has molded and formed more characters, influenced the minds of more people than Father James Reuter. That’s why I feel truly blessed that in my lifetime I have met such a person as Father Jim. I believe that in the course of human history, God sometimes sends angels to us, mortals, to guide us and influence us in our lives. And I believe that one such angel is Father Jim. 

JUNE KEITHLEY: I think he’s a saint.

SIENNA OLASO: We love him. He’s part of our family. He’s our spiritual advisor for all of us in the family.

Television Broadcasting

BL: [29:02] Which names pop out of memory, when you talk about Ateneo or the decade in the 50s?

JR: Well, what I remember most is the TV shows that we were putting on because at that time, TV was just beginning. There was only one channel that I remember. That was Channel 3.

BL: Black and white.

JR: Yeah, black and white. And it was on the second floor above the supermarket on Florentino Torres … Yeah, Republic Supermarket. And it was owned… The supermarket was owned by a Chinese.

BL: Liao.

JR: Yes, Liao.

BL: That’s the same building, Father, which protruded by one meter, they had to cut it. 

JR: The owner of the channel, as far as I remember when we started, was Jim Lindenberg. He was a major, as I remember it, in the American army, in communications, and he started this thing. But then when he said or did something that offended everybody, he went out and, in came Geny Lopez. And, I coached Geny Lopez in basketball when he was a student at Maryknoll way back in 1940 – 1941. But his manager at that time was Louis Garcia. And Louis Garcia had been working with us in radio for a long time before. All of the people who were in TV in those early days sprang up from radio — Dick Taylor and Vero Perfecto. So many of them in that way. They kinda broke into TV without any formal classes.

BL: Benny Garcia, I remember. He used to anchor the news. 

JR: Yeah. We did the first big play on television because it was always live. We didn’t have any taped in those days. We did Cyrano de Bergerac in that supermarket, you know what I mean, above the supermarket.

BL: Was this the one sponsored by Caltex? Yeah, exactly. Was that the Caltex theater?

JR: The one who was involved with Caltex Theater was Jimmy De La Rosa. Jaime De La Rosa. He was kind of the anchorman for, though Rogelio was the Gamer Boy, but he became the center. Yeah, exactly. But Jaime was identified with that Caltex Star Caravan, I think they called it. And we were doing shows for him regularly. The Ateneo plays would come on there.

BL: You’ll remember, Father, Rogelio was coaxed not run for president because I think he had so much money he could have made it. Who else do you remember in that era, Father? Nilda Navarro, you should remember.

JR: Oh, Nilda very much, very, very much. Well, Vic Silayan, of course. He was a great actor.

BL: Tita Munoz.

JR: Tita Munoz, yes. Right.

BL: But this was the time you… Were you already producing the Santa Sita and Mary Rose?

JR: No, that came much later. came much later. We… Sixties, I think. I think it came only in the sixties. Sixties, on Channel 5.  Well, it was on all the channels. We began on 11th. We began on 11th. That was the first… On Taft Avenue. And then we were on 5 when martial law broke. We kind of broke all the records for sustaining time, and we were on the air for at least 11 years.  

BL: [32:09] I remember the videotape machine before it was as big as a car.

JR: We were in there before videotape so that everything was live. Everything was live.

BL: And on the radio side, it’s dubbing.

JR: [32:33] Yeah. When I began in radio, everything was live. Everything was live. And the fact is, when we wanted to record, we’d cut it on a record. We’d cut it on a record, and then the tape came in after that.

BL: And in the soap operas, and dramas, they’re acting it out on the air and somebody’s typing the script.

JR: Almost, almost like that, yeah. They were glamorous days, but everybody seemed to enjoy it. Paredes had a little news program in the morning, but they recognized Jess all over the city by his laughter.

BL: But you forgot Father Lucas.

JR: Oh, Jess, well, Lucas was a minor character in the Commonweal Hour. Kuwentong Kutsero. The original Lolo Hugo was Luis Pimentel, the little brother of Narciso Pimentel. It was only when Luis was killed during the war that Jess Lucas took over the character of Lolo Hugo, and then he made it bigger and bigger. And then it was Narciso Pimentel Jr. who brought that onto TV, and it did a lot of good.  Kuwentong Kutsero  was invented by Horacio de la Costa. He created that. He created it when we were campaigning against divorce.

BL: So, if this, we’re now on the 50s, who are the television directors then?

JR: Dick Taylor was doing a number of things. Phil Delfino was, uh Phil was a little later, he was working with ABS-CBN. Vero Perfecto was very, very active. Louis Garcia was kind of an executive. The directors kind of sprang out of the ground. They were drama directors more than anything else. And the cameramen, the cameramen were developed from drivers. I mean, one of the best cameramen we had in ABS-CBN, he had been a driver when I first came in, but he wound up as a very good man. I was, in those days, they would take the people from the rank and file, you know, and build them up. It was a very wholesome thing that way. You know, a man that would start very humbly would wind up as a kind of a lead man.

BL: [34:41] Channel 5 came down the road to (unintelligible)…

JR: Channel 5 was a later. That was the Roces family. It was out in Pasong Tamo.

BL: This was about 62 already. Earlier, about late 50s.

JR: We worked in Channel 5 a good deal. It was a good channel.

BL: This was in Malugay or was it in the subterranean building along Pasong Tamo? Malugay, Father.

JR: It was Malugay. Malugay.

BL: We had, I think, three studios. small, smaller, smallest. Bob Garon was active there.

JR: Yes, Bob Garon very much so. Yes, yes.

BL: This was the debut of Doroy Valencia, Joe Guevara on television, Dindo Gonzales.

About Arsenio Lacson

JR: I forgot exactly when it happened, I was doing “Father Reuter Presents” or something. And right alongside me was Arsenio Lacson. On the Sunday that he died, he wasn’t there. That was when I found out that he was dead. He died about noontime and then they announced over his program that night. But he was he had a program called In This Corner, if you remember. Lacson was writing for us in the newspaper. It was called The Commonweal. When he died, he was mayor already.

BL: But he was congressman first, sportswriter, then congressman.

JR: He was a great man. And he was coach of the Ateneo football team. He was the coach of Ramon Cabrera. And his team, Arsenio Lacson, and boy, in 1941, the Ateneo won the championship from La Salle with one goal.  It was kicked in with the left foot by Simon Lao who was not only left-handed but left-footed. And the goalie was Javellana, so far as I know, was Louis Javellana. And that team was undefeated, untied, unscored upon. Now it’s kind of hard to beat that record.  We won it on December the 7th, 1941, and the war broke out the next day.

More Testimonials

BONG LAPIRA: [36:46] A communicator all his life. Father James Reuter fits the man described by the Psalms, “Open my lips, let my mouth sing your praise. When everyone stirs awake, when color breaks new life and hope begins again.” He has devoted all his time to train Filipinos on how to effectively communicate the good message. From his example, many young Filipinos learned to how to talk, how to write, how to convey the message designed to shape a better world.

REUBEN NUNEZ: I am very proud and very happy to have been associated with this man, Father James V. Reuter, because you can look at his students and friends of old. They’re all in mass communications and media – Tony Mercado, Miniong Ordonez. They’re all in advertising – Ben Bautista. We’re all in communications. You can count me in. There’s Subas Herrero, Noel Trinidad. They’re all in media. They’re all in mass communications. These are fruits of the efforts of this man you call Father James B. Reuter.

JOJI ISLA: [38:09]Ang pinakamalaking impact sa akin ni Father Reuter was during the wake of my mother. Noong nakaburol siya sa Loyola, Father Reuter gave a mass there. His homily had the biggest impact I have ever in my life.

Homily about death

JR: There are three big truths that confront us whenever we face death. The first is that death is a gift as much as life. Life is a gift. You have to say that loud and clear these days because what John Paul is saying is we are in a period of confrontation, the culture of death against the gospel of life. But life itself is a gift.

And it’s beautiful in all of its parts. See, Shakespeare has Hamlet saying, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” But it’s better to be than not to be. It is better to be heartbroken than not to be at all. It’s better to be sick with cancer of the lungs than not to be at all. It is better to be a paraplegic than not to be at all. It’s better to be born under a bridge than not to be born at all. 

It’s the introduction to the story. It’s the prelude before the play, it’s the verse before the song, it’s the handle on the knife, it’s the springboard from which we take off into life.

Well, there really is a time for dying. There’s a time to be born, there is a time to grow, a time to learn, a time to laugh, a time to play, a time to labor, a time to fall in love, a time to mourn. And there is a time for going home to God. And when that time comes, it is beautiful. God chooses the time with great love and with great wisdom. God is smarter than all of us. God chooses the year, the month, the week, the day, the hour, the moment.

JOJI ISLA: [40:26] After his homily, I was relieved and I became at ease. And I knew about my mother… Maganda na ang kinalalagyan ng mother ko.  

President Garcia

BL: When Magsaysay became president, a lot of Ateneans were involved in government.

JR: That’s very true.

BL: Magsaysay and then right after Magsaysay, Garcia.

JR: Garcia would come around to the Ateneo in the new campus now, out there at Loyola, and play chess with Horacio de la Costa. And he’d come right after lunch. And I was impressed because he would take off his shoes and he would sit in a chair with his legs folded a little bit, you know, and he would play chess. Very simple. So, he kept coming back. And so, Horacio was missing siesta all the time because he was playing chess. So, what they said to him, what the advice they gave to Horacio was, let him beat you. 

Communications and theater arts in the 70s

BL: How would you assess communications and the arts then?

JR: I don’t know, I would remember it as a period of transition. See, really transition. when you were saying about left wing, that was the beginning of the discontent, you know, which broke out big when you got to the 70s. See, in the middle of those 60s, 65, we had the Second Vatican Council. Then we began to lose priests and we began to lose nuns and our vocations began to fall off, and more and more children were marching in the streets. And then by the 1970s it was kind of wild. If you remember early in 1970, it was Pacifico Ortiz who gave that invocation on that State of the Nation when the president was led in. It was a dramatic statement where he was condemning all the injustices in government and when the president came out there was a demonstration in the street against him. It was good in the sense that everybody was saying what they thought. It was bad in that there seemed to be a lot of hatred.

[42:49] We lost 75 Jesuit priests In 13 years, between 1965 and 1978, sometimes they just left the Philippines because they thought the Filipinos did not like the Americans anymore. Because they were saying the heads of every department has to be a Filipino, it must not be an American. And they had signs “Americans Go Home.” And so, some of the Americans, they took it seriously and they went home. I couldn’t take it seriously because I knew that this was a vociferous minority.

But it went on this way. Some were so depressed by this that they left the Society of Jesus. So that we lost. When the smoke settled, we had lost 75 priests in only 13 years. That was incredible. They were stormy years. It was really a period of transition. From one good thing to another good thing. But that was the wild times.

BL: Trying to look back, Father, in terms of communication and arts, I could be wrong, but I think the patroness for pop music was Imelda Romualdez Marcos. I don’t think anyone can take that out of her because the development of pop music in that era it came out I think.

JR: You mean original Filipino music?

BL: The first time it was true.

JR: There was a lot of nationalism which was good and mixed in with the nationalism there was a certain amount of hatred and a great deal of restlessness and discontent with the government, discontent with everything. This was the preliminary to martial law. 

Heroism and service to country

BONG LAPIRA: Father James Reuter is an American by birth, and yet no one loves the Philippines more. His love for this country and its people is such that he would not hesitate to put his life on the line for the Filipino. He proved that when he was threatened by the military during the martial law regime for voicing out the truth as the editor of a small newspaper, The Communicator. Arrested and tried by the government, he never wavered. 

Father Reuter has spent most of his life here in the Philippines, having lived here since 1938. He cares deeply for this country. He has done and continues to do selfless, heroic, noble, and multifaceted service to the Filipino people. His faith in the Filipino is unshaken. You can do great things, and you can change the world, he says. And he constantly reminds the discouraged Filipino and the Filipino heart.

SIENNA OLASO: I’d like to believe Father Reuter is a Filipino. He is very much a Filipino. He has trained Filipinos to work hard and to bring people closer to God.

JUNE KEITHLEY: [45:45] I really believe that Father was a gift to the Filipino people and this has shown itself to be true because of the role that he played in our freedom. This is what happened at EDSA. If Father Reuter hadn’t been there. We wouldn’t have been where we are today because it was because of Father Reuter that I was where I was. We had young people inside the camp, outside the camp who were also Reuter babies following his orders, sending back information. And he had a very pivotal role to play in EDSA. 

AMB. OSCAR VILLADOLID: If India has Mother Teresa to minister to the poor and the dying, I believe that the Philippines has Father Reuter, who has devoted his lifetime as missionary, teacher, spiritual advisor, art director, and theater producer. Father Reuter counts with legions of faithful followers, most of whom he had taught at Ateneo schools. Many of them have become leaders in government and the community. 

Development of communications and broadcasting

BL: [47:00] But looking back, Father, if you were to look back now and trace the development of communications in the Philippines, has it made leaps, done leaps and bounds, or it’s taken a long time to? 

JR: It has not taken leaps and bounds. It has taken a long time to grow. I think that what has happened to us is we’ve fallen into an imitation pattern. We are imitating what has succeeded abroad. That’s not bad. I think we learn that way. But I think we have so much of our own. We don’t have to do that. I’m thinking of Cecile Guidote. Cecile Guidote Alvarez, she was a great actress in her day. And she got her scholarships to the United States from a play that we did, The Miracle Worker. Now again, that was a Broadway play.

And when she came back, she founded PETA, the Philippine Educational Theatre Association. And I think that kind of move, you know, of developing our own drama, I think that’s the big thing that we should work on today. Because I think the Filipino is a natural actor. And we have a real natural flair for the stage. You can see that in characters like Lea Salonga, you know, winning all the awards in both London and in New York and so many others that we do right now. Miss Saigon has a Filipino cast in London, in New York, in Toronto, in Los Angeles, in Australia, and in Germany. 

BL: What about, I understand that the Catholic Church has about 50 radio stations nationwide, both AM and FM. Are you happy with the way it’s covering the archipelago? Is it effective enough in your mind? 

JR: [49:00] It is effective. It’s certainly effective. It’s actually 42 radio stations at the moment, but we’re about to have three more. And we have four small television channels. 

Are we saturating the nation? We are. See, we are in places where nobody else is. We are in Tawi-Tawi, where nobody else is there. We are in Barongan, nobody’s there. Malaybalay. We are in Mati.  You know, we were out there in Baler. So, we are in places where the people are and where there isn’t any money. That’s our hardship. And I’m happy that we are saturating the nation. I think that our programming could be improved. It certainly could be.

BL: In the development of radio and television programming, are you happy, Father, with what you see now? 

JR: [50:00] Oh no, it’s bad. It is really, really bad. Because the bottom line… The bottom line is what makes money. So, in the programming that I see, still the producers are of the conviction that nothing sells except sex and violence. And so, they go in for sex and violence. Now, I don’t think that they really want to seduce the youth, but I think that’s what they’re doing in their efforts to make money. The bottom line is how much money does it make? How does it sell?  And that’s it. So, I think that even the industry itself is getting a little nervous about what it’s doing that way. But I think our programming right now is bad.

BL: Having in mind that the newspapers use newsprint and radio and television use the airwaves, we feel that the airwaves is part of the patrimony. That it belongs to the nation.

JR: Yes, right. It belongs to the nation.

BL: So, if it belongs to the nation, shouldn’t we have a constitutional body that should issue out franchises and control it? A body that is represented by the very people which radio and television impact on parents, children, religious, military, and then issue franchises on the basis of what I’d call weighted average, where you put more premium on the meaningful help it can extend.

We had this proposal, and we gave this to Butch Aquino before. But it seems that they could not buck the tide of cost per thousand. The pressure was too great. Because what we did, Father, is this. You line them up against the wall, you say, gentlemen, want to have a franchise? Administration, bid. You got it. Finance, you got it. Marketing. But now on the production side, relevance, value, substance. You give it to them If they fail to perform the meaningful contribution, then you say, give the franchise back. 

Government reform

JR: [51:57] You know what you’re doing is putting your finger on the real problem of the whole nation. That’s it. See, actually, we do have an administrative body. The franchise is a law of the land. It has to be passed by the House of Representatives. It has to be passed by the Senate. But what you’re saying is it is passed largely because of money. And this is 100 % true. See, the problem I think of the whole nation is can we find leaders who would think of the people and not of themselves. Could we find a statesman who would think of the next generation and not of the next election?  Could we have an army of people in government who are really selfless and who are working for the poor? See, I think that’s a real problem that we’re up against.

See, like now, I’m deeply touched by the efforts at electoral reform, which don’t get the first base. They just don’t get the first base because everybody in power, if he votes for electoral reform, it is cutting down the bridge over which he got to where he is. And so, he doesn’t want to do that. So, nothing happens. I think that’s the drama of our nation.

We have so many virtues. I mean, the Filipino certainly has courage. He certainly has humility. Certainly, he has generosity. The Filipino is certainly affectionate. You know, we have plenty of virtues. But when it gets to honesty, when it gets to money, suddenly we’re paralyzed. I mean, we’re a poor nation. It’s true. We need the money. But honesty and integrity, especially in office, is not our national virtue, not yet. It certainly is not. And I think that’s the crying need of our day. 

BL: What about the academe, Father, the educational development of our country? How do you assess it looking back over the last 50 years? 

JR: [53:52] Oh, I think it’s going more and more reaching out to the poor. At least in concept, at least in desire, they are reaching out to the poor. I think they’re having a hard time doing it. Because education, whether they like it or not, is becoming more and more expensive. It’s harder and harder to get into the really good schools because the tuition is getting more and more out of the range of the very poor. But if you look at the constitutions of all the schools, they keep saying, let us reach out to the poor. Let us educate those who have not. I think that we are thinking in the right way. But we are not quite doing yet.

The Jesus quality

BONG LAPIRA: Father Reuter loved to be with the young people. He believes that the future rests in a thousand dreams inside young hearts. It rests in the message of hope and that this is the ultimate message he conveys in all his endeavors.  The man we have just met face to face is a man who cared enough to use the power of his genius, his words, and his example to drive us to the limits of our potentials and give us a vision of our own best possibilities.

He had what they call the Jesus quality, a sharing person, one who gave of himself, a person who believes that love is not given in measured quantities. For him, love has got to be too much or it’s not enough. He pours love into other people’s hearts. They find courage to do the same. No wonder he is deeply loved in return.

Philippine theater

BL: Father, would I be correct to say that the development in radio or television or movies would be the same as the development in theater? 

JR: [55:40] No. What is happening with the stage is there’s a passion to imitate and reproduce what is done abroad, for instance, Miss Saigon. Well, everybody wants to produce Miss Saigon, Les Miserables. Well, they’re great plays. I know they’re great plays. But the Philippines has so much to give. The Philippines has them. See, the Philippines are spiritually rich. And the West is in many ways bankrupt, intellectually bankrupt, bankrupt spiritually. And the Philippines could give so very much if we could develop what is most our own. This is the way Dela Costa wrote it. He said, no Shakespeare, no Cervantes has risen among us to express which is most intimate to us, what is most ourselves, what is most our own. The problem I think is economic. It costs so much to produce a play. It’s so hard to produce it with the way the Americans do. It is such an expensive deal that we feel they just can’t get the money back from theater.  They can possibly get it back from movies, they can possibly get it back from TV or from radio, but very hard to get it back from a stage play which only has 500 people in the audience.  But I think that’s really what we ought to do. Truly, think the Filipino has a message that the whole world is hungry for.

BL: Is it really giving a public what they want, or is it educating a public with what they deserve?

JR: It’s not the sickness of theater; it’s the sickness of the world. In that conference, which is just held here in Manila, on child’s rights and the media, the woman from Australia, Dr. Patricia Edgar, said, “We are faced with a new kind of conquest.  It is not violent. There is no external force. There is no brutality. But it is conquest of the mind. If you want to conquer a people. The best way is to take away their culture and substitute your own. Take away their dreams and substitute your own.” And she said, “That is what is happening to us in Asia.” And then when the delegates were talking about it, they said, yeah, the heroes of our children are Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Madonna. The children are being conquered by the United States hot dog, by McDonald’s hamburger.

And then one of the Bangladesh delegates said, “Oh, look it, don’t blame the children.” He said, “I look out the window of the Shangri-La, that’s where it was. Then what do I see?” He said, “I see Paris, I see New York, I don’t see the Philippines.” And he said, “Look at the clothes you’re wearing. They don’t come from here; they come from the (unintelligible). Look at the shoes you’re wearing.“ So, he said, “We’re doing it first.” But I think that’s true. I think it is true. We’re imitating, we’re copying, we are following. And I think we do have so much to give where we could really lead. I do think that is true. We have a deep realization of this, but we have not been able to put it into practice. 

BL: [58:54] So, what would you prescribe, Father?  Let’s say, would we need a theater czar or something?

JR: Oh, boy. No, I don’t think you can prescribe for this. It’s got to spring out of the ground. I think it’s got to come from the people. And I think it’s going to come. I think it will come. What I see, what I see is, for instance, the ambassador of the United States to the Philippines on the 4th of July said in the U.S. Embassy loud and clear, “Today is the Golden Jubilee of Philippine independence. 50 years ago, on the 4th of July 1946 the United States granted independence to the Philippines.” And the Filipinos were very quiet. See, but what most Filipinos have been saying is we are now approaching the 100th anniversary of Philippine independence, which was Malolos, and we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Jose Rizal who died for the freedom of the Philippines. I think that feeling is with us right this minute. 

I am trying to produce a play for the Cardinal, which will come off in the Araneta Coliseum. And it’s the Philippines, yesterday, today and forever. But what it is doing is presenting the heroes of the Philippines, just as they were. The Raja Soliman, Lorenzo Ruiz, Gregorio del Pilar, Jose Rizal, the magnificent stand of the people in EDSA. I think that we have material there which could lay waste to the world because I think the virtues of the Filipino are very, very real and the message of the Filipino is real. See, I don’t want to say that we’re not doing it. I think we’re trying to do it, but we just haven’t gotten there yet. I don’t think we could legislate it or do it with a structure. It’s going to come from us.

God’s drama

JUNE KEITHLEY: [1:01] You know one of the things about Father Reuter, he believed in the goodness of man. If you read his articles in the newspapers today, I love to read his Saturday articles because they bring me back to a time when we all believed and we trusted in one another. And when we were selfless, when uh we went out of our way to take care and to help others, Father Reuter is still the same person that I knew when I was still a teenager, when I was a very young girl. He is intrinsically very good man. Professional in everything that he does. He has taught many of us that communication is a way to help develop uh society. And he has given many of us a sense of responsibility. I think I have developed my sense of responsibility that I have. I think a lot of it has come also from Father.

BL: As he once said, every life is a drama. All his life, Father Reuter has taught us to believe in God’s drama. In the specific plot of God for each of us in our lives, our task is to act out that drama under the divine direction. In closing, I’d like to share with you the prayer of Father Reuter. The simple prayer from the heart which he begins his every activity class, rehearsals, play, performance, a basketball game, everything.

A simple prayer

Lord God, 
look down upon us 
this day, this hour 
regardless of what 
has gone before or 
what will come after, 
Give us the grace to consecrate this time 
entirely to you – 
all the actions 
of our body and soul. 
May all the thoughts 
that come to us be true. 
May all the things to which 
our hearts go out 
be beautiful, 
with beauty of God. 
May all the things 
we want be good. 
Give us the light 
to see your will, 
the grace to love it, 
and the courage and strength to do it.  
May we ask you this 
through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.

The interview ends with stage actor and singer Subas Herrero leading a group of friends in singing a Broadway song “On the Street Where You Live” with Fr. Reuter conducting.

Fr James B. Reuter, SJ passed away at the age of 96 in Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Manila on December 31, 2012. The Philippine Jesuit community expressed its debt of gratitude to Fr. Reuter for establishing the Jesuit Communications Foundation and for championing Jesuit and Church presence in the Philippine mass media.

The video was transcribed with help of Erica Corpuz at the O’Bikoliana Repository of the Ateneo de Naga University Library using the Riverside Transcription tool and edited for Dateline Ibalon by Jojo De Jesus. Click link to view the video.