THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. PABLO ALEJO, ACCUSED AND APPELLANT.

For treasonous assistance to the enemy during the Japanese
interlude, Pablo Alejo, a Filipino citizen, got life imprisonment, plus
fine, from the First Division of the People’s Court.

He was tried in Tacloban, Leyte, upon five charges; but only the
third was substantiated, Prosecutor Gatmaitan having informed the
judges that “due to the distance of the municipality, we have not been
able to bring other witnesses to prove other counts.”

According to the record, on and before July 24, 1943, a group of
guerrilla men under the command of Antonio Cataag encamped in Barrio
Malunod, Municipality of Ormoc, Leyte, around the schoolhouse there.
About two o’clock in the morning twenty Japanese soldiers, accompanied
and guided by several Filipino “home guards” attached to the Japanese,
(among them Pablo Alejo, Gregorio Quilanta and one Seño, marched toward
the secret camp. They were all fully armed with rifles. Alerted in
time, Cataag ordered his soldier Francisco Bellosino to go out and do
some scouting. The latter obeyed. He was followed closely but
cautiously by Cataag himself, his assistant Sixto Nuñez, Pablo Mendiola
and Sergeant Bacaro. Bellosino met the herein accused, who was leading,
and ahead of, the raiding patrol. The latter feigning connection with
the resistance forces, slyly asked, “Where are our boys?”. Completely
taken in, Bellosino approached and the accused instantly seized him. A
struggle ensued, Bellosino trying to escape. Alejo then bayonetted his
captive in the abdomen and buttocks. Presently, the Japanese and their
Filipino helpers arrived, and butted the poor scout to death. In the
meantime the guerrilleros, who had only three rifles, scampered into
hiding, because they knew it was futile to resist or help their comrade.

The invaders searched the locality, and realizing the quarry had
escaped, they forcibly entered the dwelling of old man Leon Puno and
possibly suspecting him of guerrilla connections, bayonetted him into
Kingdom Come, in the presence of his wife Paula Torrevillas, who also
had to witness the ransacking of her home, the trespassers taking away
about 300 pesos of her “genuine” money. (Philippine pre-war currency).
Thereafter said soldiers and “home guards” left the barrio with four
male hostages (Juan Omega, Castor Celis, Rufino Gagni and Victor
Badiong).

The accused-appellant admitted membership in the home guards
organization; but denied having accompanied Nippon soldiers in the
expedition to Malunod.

The principal issue is whether or not the prisoner was sufficiently
identified as one of the raiders on that bloody night. He was. Antonio
Cataag and Pablo Mendiola knew him since boyhood in Ormoc. These swore
to having recognized him by the bright moonlight, about 30 yards away,
attacking Bellosino. Both witnesses had no axe to grind. One claimed
friendship with the accused, the other said he was a third cousin.
Sixto Nuñez, a former school teacher, acquainted with the accused since
1930, saw the same acts and told the same story. These three — like the
appellant—were residents of Ormoc. Their assertions were partly
corroborated by the circumstance that the next day, Paula Torrevillas
reporting the murder of her husband, mentioned the accused among those
who had searched her residence.

Appellants attorney de oficio has carefully revised the expediente,
and pointing out some inconsistencies and flaws in the prosecutor’s
case, and pleads for acquittal upon the ground of reasonable doubt. The
points have been examined. They are either unimportant or easily
explainable. For instance, the order in which the wounds were inflicted
on Bellosino: whether in the abdomen first or on the buttocks first.
The main thing is that he was wounded in both parts of the body. The
sequence should be immaterial, considering the region of the anatomy
involved, and the positions of the eye-witnesses.

“It is common observation that eye-witnesses to the
whole or a part of an incident that occurs unexpectedly and is in a
considerable degree horrifying in its nature, testify to or otherwise
relate what they saw, at considerable variance with one another. And
yet it has never been held that’ because they did so, they were
unreliable or partial persons. When the coffin of Mary Queen of Scots
was opened, between 1830 and 1840, it was discovered that she had at
her execution received two strokes of the axe, one of which had only
slashed the nape, while the second had separated the head from the
trunk. But we possess a series of accounts of that execution, dating
from the period itself, all abundance and exactitude of details, and
not one of these accounts mentions the first blow which merely injured
the nape of the neck. Yet, judging from the careful way in which these
accounts have been recorded, this detail would certainly have been
reported had it been noticed by any of the spectators; but all were
evidently in such a state of agitation that not even one of them
observed the false blow, and all would probably have sworn in a court
of law that only one blow was dealt.” (Moore on Facts, Vol. II, p. 750.)

We see no reason to modify or reverse the finding that herein
appellant was a traitor. In consonance with his view that the law on
treason was suspended at that time, Mr. Justice Parás holds the herein
accused guilty of murder only. All members agree, however, that the
penalty meted out to the prisoner is in accordance with law. (Arts. 114
and 248, Revised Penal Code.)

Judgement affirmed, without costs. So ordered.

Moran, C. J., Feria, Pablo, Perfecto, Hilado, Briones Padilla, and Tuason, JJ., concur