Background
He was born in Molo, Iloilo City, one of eight siblings, to José Hontiveros and Vicenta Pardo.
He was born in Molo, Iloilo City, one of eight siblings, to José Hontiveros and Vicenta Pardo.
He studied at the Capiz Elementary School and transferred to Ateneo de Manila High School, graduating in 1939. He studied theology in the United States in 1951, and was ordained a priest by Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1954.
With the Vatican II mandate of localisation of the Mass, Hontiveros began to write liturgical hymns in the 1960s. His more famous hymns include a setting for the Tagalog text of the Gloria, "Papuri sa Diyos", "Magnificat (Ang Puso Ko"y Nagpupuri)", "Maria, Bukang-Liwayway" (lit "Mary, Dawn"), "Pananagutan" ("Responsibility"), among many others Illness and death
Hontiveros suffered a stroke in 1991, affecting his mobility and ability to communicate.
On 4 January 2008, he was found lying unconscious in a hallway of the Loyola House of Studies in Quezon City and physicians later determined that he had suffered another stroke.
He was pronounced dead on 15 January 2008, and among the attendees at his funeral on 19 January were President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who presented a posthumous award for his work.