THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. FORTUNATO MUÑOZ (ALIAS FORTUNATO VIZCARRA), DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.

The substance of the testimonies of the eight witnesses for the prosecution
is as follows:

1. Adelaida Villareyes, 25, single, resident of Bamban, Tarlac, testified that
   in September, 1943, she was in Tapuak, Bamban, with the Americans Captain Bruce
   and Lt. James Hart, and Zinghine, and a Filipino named Jose Raagas. They were in
   their hideout in a small hut. There were plenty of tall grasses and bamboo
   thicket. Captain Bruce was forming a guerrilla organization. “I was the supply
   officer and I was nursing them.” At 5 o’clock in the morning of September 3,
   1943, the hideout was raided by Japanese constabularly and spies. “That morning
   we were sleeping soundly and we had a little dog named Daisy. This dog started
   making noise inside the mosquito net and we all woke up. Then we heard the noise
   of so many people coming and they opened fire so we finally dropped to the
   ground and stayed there for a while until the firing was over. After the firing
   was over, I crawled and I wanted to get away because the place was surrounded by
   Japanese, constabulary men and spies.” The spies were Jose Arquiola, Garcia,
   Mateo Lacsina, and Fortunato Muñoz, the accused. When the Americans “were
   already tied up, Fortunato came, and I saw him with Hart’s shoes and his flight
   overall, and a small bag, and the .45 caliber revolver that used to belong to
   Hart. When I was grabbed by the Japanese—there was no other trail, and as I
   happened to look at the stream I saw Lt. Hart lying there. His back was against
   the bank of the stream. I saw a hole on his forehead they grabbed me and took me
   where Zinghine was and tied me.” Zinghine “was tied up when I got there like I
   was, hands behind his back.” Captain Bruce and Raagas “got away.” From the place
   “they walked us and when we got by the gold mine, we sat there for a while, and
   then we continued to the garrison.” There were about twenty Japanese, ten
   constabulary men and four spies. There were guns in the Bambang garrison, “When
   we got there they untied me and took me to another office inside the garrison
   and asked me questions if there are other guerrillas and more Americans, and I
   said no. The next day they took us to Capas jail; we stayed there two and a half
   days and then they took us back to Bamban.” In Capas the Japanese asked them
   about guerrillas. After six days in Bamban, “they took me to Magalang.” In the
   Magalang Japanese garrison “I stayed there almost three months. I was captured
   on April 3, 1943 , and was released on December 7, 1943. I went back to the
   mountains and joined Captain Bruce and the rest of the guerrillas that they used
   to have while I was away.” While in Bamban, she saw guerrillas being tortured.
   “They (the Japanese and the spies, including Fortunato Muñoz) tortured them
   everyday just to make them tell if they knew more guerrillas and whatever they
   wanted to find out. I saw them, and they dipped them into the swimming pool
   there, and they sat on their stomachs.” Since the accused had Lit. Hart’s .45
   pistol “he had that always. The only spy that was not carrying a gun was
   Arquiola.” The witness was connected with the Luzon Guerrilla Forces, South
   Tarlac Military District, under Captain Bruce, the organization having been
   recognized on February 21, 1945. The witness held the rank of captain and was
   discharged on May 29, 1945.

   The witness was held by the Japanese in Magalang for almost three months and
   she saw that the accused arrived three times with the Japanese. They were all
   armed and appeared tired. After the raid in which she was captured she saw the
   accused when she was already tied up and thereafter she saw him everyday in the
   garrison.

2. Jose Raagas, 48, married, residing at Bamban, Tarlac, testified that in
   September, 1943, he was in Tapuak in the hideout which he made for his American
   companions, James Hart, Zinghine, and Captain Bruce. There was also Deling, the
   wife of Captain Bruce, whose full name is Adelaida Villareyes. At dawn, on
   September 3, 1943 , they were raided by twenty Japanese soldiers, ten
   constabulary men and four Filipino spies. The latter were Vizcarra, the accused,
   Garcia and Jose Arquila. He saw the accused Vizcarra carrying a rifle, M-1. “He
   was lying flat on the ground with the rifle on his hands. I recognized him
   because he was near me; he was facing the American James Hart who was shot by
   the accused. I ran away and two constabulary soldiers were chasing me. I went to
   the top of the hill. I saw them assembled, with Zinghine already captured. I
   went to look for my other companions.” Captain Bruce was the first to run away.
   On the following day he returned to the place and “I saw the body of James Hart,
   and our hideout was burned. When I was captured on September 15th or 16th, 1943,
   in my house, I saw the accused again. When I went to my house to get food for
   the Americans, my wife told me that Vizcarra and Lacsina went there and were
   looking for me.” “After I had finished my supper at eleven o’clock that night,
   the Japanese came. They arrested me, they tied me around my waist like a monkey.
   I was tied tightly after arriving at the garrison by Vizcarra and Lacsina, and I
   was made to drink water by the Japanese—water cure. They were forcing me to
   divulge the whereabouts of Captain Bruce,” referring to Vizcarra and Lacsina. “I
   did not reveal because it was against my conscience, and besides, I was taking
   care of them.” From the garrison he was taken to the Mayor of Bamban. “I was
   given an appointment as a spy of the Mayor, and he told me to fetch my shotgun
   from the mountains and surrender it to him.” The day following his arrest “I was
   taken again to the garrison by a policeman and a Japanese. I was again made a
   spy by the Japanese, and they told me to go to the barrios to look for
   Americans.” He surrendered his shotgun and worked as a spy for the Japanese for
   about two months. “I just reported every two or three days, and when I was not
   able to report any American, they dismissed me and told me that I was useless,
   and they got back my gun.” During those two months he sometimes saw the accused
   joining the Japanese in their raids, and sometimes in the company of three other
   spies. “He used to go in and out of the Japanese garrison freely. Every time the
   Japanese went on raid he was always with them.” The accused used to carry with
   him the .45 caliber pistol which belonged to Lt. Hart. The witness recognized it
   because there was a nail on it instead of a pin. When the accused went out on
   raids he carried with him a rifle. The witness is connected with the USAFFE
   Guerrilla, Bamban Battalion, Co. A, under Captain Wage. He knew the accused as a
   Hukbalahap since 1942. He was a Hukbalahap “until the time he became a spy.”

   On September 3, 1943, when the raid took place, it was raining and foggy.
   “When the dog barked we were awakened then, and I said that may be they were
   Japanese, and Bruce ran away.” Zinghine “was inside the mosquito net, sick with
   malaria, and did not move, so he was captured by the Japanese.” Adelaida stayed
   in the hut. “When the firing began, Bruce already disappeared. I urged Hart to
   escape but he told me, ‘No, I want to shoot a Japanese.’ The firing was on, so I
   went down the hut and lay down. Hart also went down and began to fire also. It
   was dawn between light and darkness, and the sun was already rising.” After
   going down, Hart “went away from me because he told me he wanted to fight the
   Japanese. When I saw him he was already dead, I ran away, but before that, I saw
   the accused in front of Hart, with his gun aiming at him.” Hart died in front of
   the hut. The next day the witness saw Hart with a gunshot wound at the
   forehead.

3. Florentino Manipon, 45, married, police of Bamban, Tarlac, testified that he
   served as chief of police during the Japanese occupation from February 21, to
   December 31, 1942. Then he was incarcerated for six days and dismissed as chief
   of police, but served again as such from May, 1943, to April, 1944. He was
   incarcerated by the Japanese. “They were suspecting me as giving aid to these
   Americans hiding in the mountains,” which was true. The witness knows that the
   accused Fortunato Muñoz alias Vizcarra worked in the Japanese garrison
   as a spy, “because whenever they raided a certain barrio he was with them—with
   arms and rifles—and that time I used to see him at the Japanese kempeitai in
   Bamban, Tarlac, and whenever he went with the raiding party he had a side arm
   and a rifle with him.” The witness saw the accused in a raid in the last week of
   August, 1943, in barrio La Paz “where they captured eight guerrilla suspects.”
   The witness saw the accused in raids on several occasions, but he can remember
   only that made on the last week of August, 1943, because a policeman, Florentino
   de la Cruz, was among those captured. The witness remembers also the raid made
   in barrio Bagco by the Japanese and Fortunato Muñoz, because they asked the
   witness, a policeman, Fortunato Rivera, to act as a guide “In the poblacion I
   used to see Vizcarra with the Japanese raiding the market.” The accused worked
   as a spy for the Japanese in 1943 and 1944, up to October, when the witness fled
   to the mountains. The last time he saw him was in the garrison on December 19.
   At that time the Japanese, accompanied by the accused, apprehended all the
   policemen including Miguel Ballesteros, the chief of police.

4. Miguel Ballesteros, 44, married, sergeant of police, residing in Bamban,
   Tarlac, testified that he served as sergeant of police from February, 1944 to
   December, 1944. He came to know the accused since August, 1943, after the zoning
   in Bamban. The accused dropped in at the municipal building in the company of
   Lt. Fugi and the Japanese interpreter Oka . “They brought about thirty persons
   for our custody. Seventeen of the thirty persons were picked by the Japanese
   officer with the assistance of Fortunato Muñoz. Fortunato Muñoz picked seventeen
   persons out of the thirty as members of the guerrillas. He pointed them out one
   by one. They were brought to concentration camp at Capas, O’Donnel, in the same
   afternoon when Vizcarra, the Japanese officer and the Japanese interpreter came,
   in August, 1943.” The remaining persons were told to sit down in front of the
   municipal building, and “they were instructed by Vizcarra that they must not
   join the guerrilla forces and that they must co-operate with the Japanese
   soldiers.” The accused talked in Pampango. Then said persons were released. On
   that occasion the accused was carrying a .45 caliber revolver. The witness saw
   him many times, sometimes accompanied by Japanese soldiers and sometimes by
   Garcia and other spies. In September, 1943, the accused was in the company of
   Lt. Fugi and he was “telling a group of people assembled in the municipal
   building that he had captured Lt. James Hart, and he was holding the .45 caliber
   automatic pistol which, as he said, was the gun of Lt. Hart. That was between
   September 3 and 4, 1943. The accused and the Japanese came to the municipal
   building with the purpose of telling the people what had been done to Lt Hart
   and his companion. In November, 1943, the witness and four policemen, while in
   the municipal building, heard shots coming from the sitio Santol. They went to
   the place and “we saw Vizcarra and the Japanese soldiers apprehending the people
   who were running. About fifteen of the persons apprehended were lined up and
   Vizcarra picked out twelve of them who were brought to the Japanese garrison.
   Among those apprehended were Hermogenes Sibal and Alberto de Leon. They were
   accused by Vizcarra as members of the guerrilla. “They were taken to the
   Japanese garrison. Some were released on the night of the same day and others
   were released the following morning. Only three of the twelve remained in the
   garrison. On December 17 or 19, 1944, all the eleven members of the police
   force, including the witness who was then acting as chief of police were
   apprehended by Japanese soldiers together with Constabulary soldiers. About one
   hundred fifty other persons were also apprehended. All were brought to the
   garrison. There the witness saw Vizcarra,”he was rendering assistance to them.”
   The Japanese were giving the third degree to those captured. The witness was
   detained for two days. The other policemen were also released. They were
   arrested because “the garrison commander had received information that the
   police force were members of the guerrilla forces under Captain Bruce,” and the
   information was correct. After being released, “I ran away to the mountains.”
   When Vizcarra went to the municipal building to tell a group of persons that he
   was the one who got Hart, he added: “As a matter of fact I am wearing his
   clothes and got his gun.” The witness was tortured in the death chamber. He was
   wounded at the back of the head. He was injected with medicine after which “I
   felt unconscious and I spat blood.” He was tortured by the Japanese. “I managed
   not to talk; I did not squeal.”

5. Juan Alfonso, 38, married, laborer, residing at Bamban, Tarlac, testified
   that he came to know the accused because they worked together for the same
   landlord before the Japanese occupation. In August, 1943, he met him when he
   came along with the Japanese soldiers who effected the raid in Tapuak. The
   accused carried a firearm, .45 caliber revolver, on his waist. After the raid on
   September 3, the accused came again to the barrio, where the people were
   gathered. Oka, the Japanese, speaking in Tagalog, introduced the accused to the
   people in the following manner: “Here is the man—pointing to the accused—who
   killed James Hart. You better capture or kill other Americans as he did and you
   will also be compensated as we compensated him.” At that time the accused was
   beside the Japanese, and he did not say anything. At the time Vizcarra was
   introduced to the barrio people, the Japanese zoned the place, but nobody was
   arrested. Referring to the raid of September 3, the witness said: “At eleven
   o’clock that same morning when we heard the shots I went to the place which the
   Japanese raided and I found Hart in the hole dead.”

6. Fortunato V. Anunciacion, 31, married, unemployed, residing at Bamban,
   Tarlac, testified that on August 25, 1943, he was captured by the Japanese
   military forces at Bamban, while he was in the house of his aunt at barrio La
   Paz. The Japanese were aided by spies, one of them being Vizcarra, the accused.
   According to Captain Katino, the witness was arrested because the spies who were
   with him told him that the witness was a guerrilla leader. All in all seven
   persons were arrested and brought from Bamban to Mabalacat. The accused was
   carrying a revolver. They were taken below the house of Mr. Morales. The
   Japanese soldiers and the spies were in the upper story. “After eleven days
   imprisonment in Mabalacat I was brought by the same Japanese soldiers and
   constabulary men to Tarlac military police jail. I stayed in Tarlac four months
   and seven days.” He was released on January 12, 1944. “The day I was released by
   the military police I was bound to the mountains to rejoin my unit, but I have
   seen Vizcarra with another spy whose name was Posong Garcia. They were both
   standing on the railroad track in front of the railroad station of Bamban. At
   the moment I saw them I feared to proceed directly to the mountains and instead
   I went near them and said: ‘How are you tokayo?’ and he said ‘I am alright’. I
   further said: ‘You have a new uniform’ and he said: ‘This is the overall used by
   Lieutenant Hart.’ Then he asked me if I knew already the death of Lieutenant
   Hart and as I kept silent, he proceeded saying: ‘And this is the pistol of
   Lieutenant Hart. You know I was the man who killed him when we raided their
   hideout, I had only a glance at him and the moment I sighted him I killed him
   with one bullet and as a reward for killing him, this overall and this pistol
   were given to me by the Japanese.'” The accused and his companion confiscated
   rice, sugar and other goods from the civilians who were bound for Manila riding
   in the train. Witness was arrested on August 25, 1343, and was released only on
   January 12, 1944, and during that period he has never been out.

7. Melencio Wage, 28, widower, captain, Philippine Army, testified that he came
   to know the accused in a raid in 1943. The accused was carrying one .45
   automatic pistol in the company of a group of Japanese. They came back about 4
   o’clock in the afternoon. In the group there were three Filipinos including the
   accused. The Japanese were armed with rifles. Again he saw the accused between
   seven and eight one morning in 1943 with Japanese soldiers. When they returned
   there were three persons with them with hands tied with rope across their backs.

The testimonies of the seven witnesses who testified for the defense are as
follows:

1. Serafin Sotto, 48, married, laborer, resident of Mabalacat, barrio
   lieutenant during the Japanese occupation, testified that he was working in the
   sugar central at Bamban, where he used to see the accused who was working in the
   garrison which was within the compound of the sugar central. The witness was the
   president of the twenty-one barrio lieutenants of Mabalacat. He requested the
   accused that if he knew of any raid to be made “he should let me know. And the
   accused used to send me the notice directly so that I could notify the others,
   and through them the people.” In April, 1943, “he wrote me a letter advising me
   that he and the Japanese were going to raid several places—Bulog, Sapang, Balen,
   Pesucul, and others. I left my house early in the morning and walked along the
   roads trying to meet the folks who were selling milk early in the morning, and
   advised them to return home to advise the barrio people of the coming of the
   Japanese and PC so that they also advise the guerrillas to leave the place if
   there were any, thus saving guerrillas and the barrio people.” On Good Friday
   during the Holy Week of 1944, one Japanese guard was killed. “The next morning
   the accused passed by Mabalacat coming from Bamban and he saw us standing by a
   barber shop and told us that if we were going to the cockpit in Angeles the
   following day, to tell the others not to carry guns because the Japanese would
   raid that cockpit. They really .raided that place the following day, and I was
   one of those arrested in the cockpit. They lined up the people there and made
   them face the sun. The accused was helping the people in lining up, telling them
   not to worry because if they had no guns nothing would happen to them, and
   advised them likewise not to be pale.” Upon request of the accused, the people
   from Mabalacat were released, including the witness. The witness was a sugar
   cane inspector of the central which operated under the charge of a Japanese who
   used to be a carpenter for the central. The witness has known the accused since
   1920.

2. Generoso David, 34, married, residing at Mawake, Mabalacat, testified that
   he was a classmate of the accused, a former foreman in Mawake. He met the
   accused during the time he was with the Japanese on September 15, 1943. “He was
   under the custody of the Japanese.” In February, 1944, he saw in his barrio the
   accused with the Japanese. Nothing happened because “before their arrival I
   received a note from him to the effect that if there were guerrillas in our
   place we should tell them to go away because he and the Japanese would come and
   raid the place. I asked the guerrillas to move to another place.”

3. Estanislao Melo, 60, married, merchant, resident of Angeles, testified that
   in February, 1944, “while I was on my way home to Angeles carrying my pigs in a
   carromata, I met Japanese in a truck on the way, and they tried to get my horse.
   I saw the accused with those Japanese and he asked me where I got the pigs from,
   and I told him that I had bought them for sale and then he intervened requesting
   the Japanese to let the pigs alone.” The witness saw again the accused on Easter
   Sunday in Angeles. “The Japanese ordered all the people in the cockpit to get
   out, then I saw the accused with them aligning the people. They begin searching
   us for firearm and when they found none, they told us to continue with the
   cockfighting.”

4. Vicente Aquino, 54, married, farmer, resident of Mabalacat, testified that
   he saw in his barrio the accused who “simply told us that they were on their way
   on patrol.” In September, 1943, between four and five o’clock in the morning,
   the witness heard shots in rapid succession. It was foggy and dark and
   drizzling. “According to what I heard after that they said that an American was
   killed.”

5. Venancio Rivera, 35, married, barber, residing at Mabalacat, testified that
   on August 18, 1943, his house in Mabalacat was burned by constabulary soldiers,
   because “I was suspected as being connected with the guerrillas.” The witness
   used to visit the accused who “asked me why I was there and I told him I was
   wanted by the constabulary and the Japanese, so he advised me to hide very well
   lest I would be caught by them. What I knew at that time was that he was already
   working in the garrison.” In August, 1944, “when the Japanese were already hot
   in pursuit of their enemies, this accused, on about ten occasions, came to
   notify me to escape because the Japanese were going to raid the place where I
   was at that time.” On September 10, 1944, a place in Bamban where the witness
   was, was zoned by one Yamashita who came from Concepcion. “The accused knew that
   my life was at a stake so he talked to that lieutenant Yamashita although I did
   not know what they talked about, but afterwards I was released.”

6. Gregorio Gaña, 42, married, laborer, residing in Tondo, Manila, testified
   that he joined the Huks from 1942 to 1944. The accused was in the same squadron
   with the witness. “We were coming from sitio Banaba and when we passed by that
   sitio Cubcub, when we arrived at the river bank, we were ambushed by the
   Japanese and we had to fight. After the fight, as we were to leave our hiding
   place in the sugar-cane field, the accused fell sick and he asked us to let him
   stay. He was left in barrio Banaba. When I saw him afterwards, he was already
   with the Japanese, and working for them. On that occasion, he always asked us
   what we needed, and on several occasions, personally we asked him what we needed
   in the form of ink, pencil, papers and others. We simply sent someone to him.
   Because we used to write.”

7. Fortunato Muñoz, the accused, testified that in May, 1942, he left Mabalacat
   because he was wanted by the authorities. He joined the guerrillas. “We
   (including Gregorio Lagman) were accepted as soldiers.” After a month he was
   transferred to another organization under Commander Malvar where he remained
   “until I was captured by the Japanese in September, 1943. We were in Mapalaksio,
   we were informed that the Japanese were going to raid us and that they were
   already near. For that reason, we left the place. We arrived at Cubcub at about
   three o’clock in the morning. As we were about to cross the river, we met the
   enemy. There was a fight—our squadron was the first to fight. Luna, our vice
   commander was shot, and my group was able to retreat in barrio Makbu, a
   sugar-cane field. While we were there, I became ill. The next day, I asked for
   permission to separate from my group and remain there. When I was taken to a
   doctor, I was caught in barrio La Paz by the Japanese. I was taken together with
   several other people, among them a certain Tanian and Cabanela. Quite a long
   time, about eight days. We were taken to the garrison. We were punished,
   maltreated. Our arms were tied behind our back and we were taken out, led by
   constabulary soldiers. They hang bags on our back” and they were taken to the
   hills of barrio Tapuak where they arrived between three and four early in the
   morning. “Mateo Laksina, Jose Orquiola, and Alfonso Garcia went away with some
   Japanese and constabulary soldiers. We were left in a rice land and those others
   who were left with us later went around. I don’t know where they went. Fifteen
   minutes afterwards, we heard machine-gun shooting. About thirty minutes or one
   hour. Jose Orquiola came back to tell them (the Japanese soldiers who were left)
   that their commander was calling for them. When we arrived there, I already saw
   Daling, an American, captured. Then I also saw the hut where they lived.” The
   accused came to know Hart. ‘I did not see him on that occasion, but when we
   returned to the garrison, Daling and others said that Hart had been shot by the
   Japanese.” The accused denies having shot Hart and having taken his revolver.
   “As a matter of fact, I saw the gun in the hands of Jose Orquida.” Jose
   Orquiola, Alfonso Garcia and Mateo Laksina were taken by the guerrillas. It is
   not true that the accused is responsible for the maltreatment of some of the
   people caught by the Japanese. He was never responsible for the arrest of any
   guerrilla. “On the contrary, if the Japanese arrested any, I used to talk to the
   Japanese and pleaded for them.” It is not true as stated by Adelaida Villareyes
   that the accused was seen by her maltreating a guerrilla in the garrison at
   Bamban. “I stayed there only for about an hour. As a matter of fact, I went
   there for a certain purpose of pleading for her and when my request was turned
   down, we have not invited her to play bowling.” Adelaida became angry when the
   accused did not accede to her request to join the Hukbalahaps in 1942. The
   accused denies having anything to do with confiscating rice and other
   commodities at the station in Bamban. “When the constabulary soldiers were
   confiscating things, I even pleaded to them not to do it.” The accused left the
   service of the central when the Americans began bombing the Philippines, and
   then joined the resistance movement. After he was arrested by the Japanese, “I
   agreed to work with them provided they let me live with my children. I could not
   escape anymore because had I done so, they would have taken my family. They made
   us guards of the laborers. A Filipino was paying our salary. We were the ones
   who were taking turns in guarding the premises.” The witness served the Japanese
   from September, 1943, until May, 1944. “At first they made me help the cook, and
   after that, they used to take me along when they went out. They took from me a
   revolver, caliber .32, and that was the one they returned to me.” Jose Orquiola,
   Mateo Laksina and Alfonso Garcia were Japanese spies. “I remember I went out
   with them probably on two occasions. The first time they took me along, we went
   to barrio Mangcop, because the Japanese wanted to ask for papaya and took us
   along to carry them. The second time, we went to barrio Mawake, this time to ask
   for camotes.” Regarding the .32 caliber revolver, “I asked for it and the
   Japanese sergeant returned it to me.” The accused was retained by the Japanese
   “for what use he could be to them in connection with the guerillas.” After
   sometime, the accused went to his barrio and explained his situation to the
   guerrillas “that the Japanese forced me to work with them and if I did not do so
   they would take, in my family so that they told me I could stay so that I could
   also help them:”

The information filed against appellant reads as follows:

“That during this period comprised between August 1943 to January 1945, more
specifically on or about the dates hereinbelow mentioned, in the different
places hereinafter stated and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court,
the herein accused not being a foreigner but a Filipino citizen owing allegiance
to the United States and the Commonwealth of the Philippines, in violation of
his said duty of allegiance wilfully, unlawfully, feloniously and treasonably
did knowingly adhere to their enemy, the Empire of Japan and/or the Imperial
Japanese Forces in the Philippines with which the United States and the
Commonwealth of the Philippines were then at war giving to said enemy aid and
comfort in the following manner, to wit:

” ‘1. That in or about August, 1943 and at diverse other dates during the
Japanese Military occupation, in the province of Tarlac, the herein accused for
the purpose of giving and with intent to give said enemy aid and comfort did
wilfully, feloniously and treasonably join, become, serve and act as imformer of
the Imperial Japanese Forces.

“2. That on or about September 3, 1943, in the municipality of Bamban,
Province of Tarlac, the herein accused for the purpose of giving and with intent
to give said enemy aid and comfort did wilfully, feloniously and treasonably
lead, assist and accompany a patrol composed of Japanese and Bureau of
Constabulary soldiers to barrio Tapuac, and once there did attack and raid the
camp of Captain Alfredo Bruce and in the course thereof the herein accused, with
the aid of the Japanese and constabulary soldiers who were all armed thereby
affording him impunity did wilfully, feloniously and unlawfully shoot and kill
Lt. James Hart and the said patrol did thereupon capture Adelaida Villareyes and
(FNU) Zinghine who were in said camp and forthwith bring them to the Japanese
garrison in the town where they were detained for over one week after which said
Adelaida Villareyes was released and (FNU) Zinghine brought to Capas, Tarlac,
where he was bayoneted to death by the Japanese.

“Contrary to law.”

The lower court, finding appellant guilty, without the attendance of any
circumstance modifying his criminal responsibilty, sentenced him to life
imprisonment, with its accessories, and to pay a fine of P10,000 and the costs,
one-half of his preventive imprisonment to be deducted from the main
penalty.

The evidence in this case has conclusively shown that in the early morning of
September 3, 1943, appellant was a member of a group of Japanese soldiers,
constabulary men and Filipino spies which raided a guerrilla hideout in Tapuak,
in which Lt. James Hart was killed, and an American named Zinghine and Adelaida
Villareyes, wife of Captain Alfred Bruce, were taken prisoners and brought to
the Japanese garrison in Bamban and Capas. At the time the raid took place,
appellant, a Filipino citizen by his admission made in open court, was in the
service of the Japanese army as agent and spy, and it is evident that he
participated in the raid to give aid and comfort to the enemy.

Appellant does not deny having been present near the place of the raid at the
time it took place, but alleges that his presence at about one hundred yards
from the raided hideout was due not to his own will but to the fact that the
Japanese brought him to the place to carry foodstuffs, with hands tied at his
back. This allegation, besides being far-fetched, cannot prevail over the
testimonies of Adelaida Villareyes and Jose Raagas. The inherent
inverisimilitude of appellant’s testimony is evident. There was no reason for
the Japanese to carry foodstuffs not needed for such a short expedition and it
is inconceivable that they should let him bring them on his shoulders with his
hands tied and as prisoner, needing to be guarded by soldiers who had to fight
against the guerrillas. The testimony of appellant, taken as a whole, has rather
the effect of adding more weight to the evidence of the prosecution. By said
testimony, it appears absolutely certain that appellant had voluntarily rendered
effective service as an agent of the Japanese. Even crediting to him whatever
benefits some individuals, including his witnesses, derived from the help he
rendered them, the fact that he was thus able to help them shows his influence
upon the Japanese, gained through his usefulness to the latter.

Adelaida Villareyes was later released. There is no evidence as to what
finally happened to Zinghine.

Upon the record, appellant’s guilt has been conclusively proven.

Being in accordance with article 114 of the Revised Penal Code, the appealed
decision is affirmed with costs against appellant.

Moran, C.J., Feria, Pablo, Hilado, Bengzon, and Tuason,
JJ., concur.

PARAS, J.:

I concur in the result. Appellant is
responsible for the death of Hart.