Rev. Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ: 1922–2015

Friends fondly called him Father Bu, short for Fr. Jaime Carlos Bulatao, SJ. To me he was Tito Jim, youngest brother of my mom. Father Bulatao was born in Paco, Manila, on 22 September 1922. Both his parents were academicians. Dr. Emilio Bulatao headed the Physiology Department at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Medicine, while Encarnacion Ungson spent a few years teaching in the public school system before she married. His father was a true-blooded researcher. One family story tells of the Bulataos’ hurried escape from their Paco residence during the Second World War’s end-game carpet bombing. Emilio Bulatao brought nothing else with him except his research papers.

Aside from a kindergarten at St. Theresa’s College, Manila, with Mother Redempta, Father Bulatao studied in Jesuit schools throughout his life. He graduated valedictorian of high school class 1939 in Ateneo de Manila, when it had its campus on Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila. He then entered the Jesuit novitiate in Novaliches as a 16-year-old college freshman. He pursued graduate studies in New York, first obtaining a theology degree from Woodstock College, subsequently proceeding to pursue graduate degrees in psychology:

Photo courtesy of the Department of Psychology, Ateneo de Manila Univerity.

MA in experimental psychology and PhD in clinical psychology at Fordham College. Both experimental rigor and clinical sensitivity contributed to the appropriate mix of scientific discipline and localized insight as he built the field of psychology when he returned to the Philippines in 1960.

Father Bulatao and I were twice related, my having spent most of my career as his colleague at Ateneo de Manila’s Department of Psychology. At work, he was known for giving personalized cryptic advice that hit their punches right at the crux of one’s heart. Three of his favorite one-liners were: “Go beyond borders,” “Just do it,” and “Transcend.” And this was how he lived out his public life on this earth.

Go Beyond Borders

To create is to bring something into existence, to go beyond what the landscape already holds. As soon as he returned to the Philippines in 1960, Father Bulatao started to build Ateneo’s Department of Psychology. Today this department is a Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Center of Excellence.

Father Bulatao was a team player. Going beyond university borders and the arid land of umbrella professional organizations, he cofounded the Psychological Association of the Philippines with stalwarts like Alfredo Lagmay, Agustin Alonzo, and Sinforoso Padilla from the UP; Jesus Perpinan from Far Eastern University; and Estefania Aldaba Lim from the Philippine Women’s University. In 1964 he likewise cofounded the Philippine Guidance and Personnel Association with colleagues from various local universities.

As Philippine psychology institutions matured, Father Bulatao explored international collaborative work in psychology as an exchange professor at Stanford University (1967), University of Hawaii (1969), Xiamen University (1987), Tien Educational Center (1989), and Taiwan’s Fujen Catholic University (1997). He fell in love with foreign languages, self-learning a little of French and Japanese and loads of conversational Chinese. His French helped save one Psychology Department secretary from unwarranted torture during martial law. Sometime in 1980, Marcosian intelligence agents went to pick up Susan Cellano from our office in Bellarmine Hall. Another secretary Nits del Rosario, who was then studying the French language, spoke in French as she phoned Father Bulatao at the Jesuit Residence so that the arresting agents would not understand the plea for help. Immediately he went to the Psychology Department and protected Susan from receiving more harm.

Although, or perhaps because, he was a Jesuit priest, Father Bulatao did not mind going beyond the borders of conventional Catholic rules when human well-being was at stake. He entered the world of Filipino indigenous spirits to heal those who suffered from various forms of psychological anguish. He respected local faith healers, encouraging his students to observe or even participate in their sessions. He was invited by families suffering from what they believed were poltergeist visitors, successfully healing the home...