Ramon E. Tolentino was accused before the Court of First Instance of Davao of the crime of treason. After trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to suffer 12 years and 1 day of reclusion temporal, with the accessory penalties of the law, to pay a fine of P10,000.00, without subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency, and to pay the costs.

The defendant admitted being a Filipino citizen.

On November 19, 1942, he was seen by Miguela Baring and Jesus Rodriguez accompanying some forty Japanese soldiers who arrived at the house of Adriano Enero. Six Japanese soldiers went upstairs and the rest remained below around said house. The Japanese were led by Lt. Watanabe-sang and another Japanese, named Ibarrasang, who was the executioner. Ibarrasang read a list of names, one of which was that of Adriano Enero, who was asked by the Japanese whether he was feeding the guerrillas. Enero answered in the affirmative. He was ordered to come down the house. The other names read were those of Glicero Enero, Juan Baring, Pablo Tablada, and Jesus Rodriguez. They were also ordered to come down. The defendant tied the hands of Adriano Enero behind his back with a piece of electric wire. The other inmates of the house were tied by the Japanese. These five men were taken to the Japanese garrison and none of them has returned, except Rodriguez. These facts were testified to by Miguela Baring, Manuela Enero, and Jesus Rodriguez.

The defendant, in his defense, declared that he was himself a guerilla, and, as he had been a foreman of the Bureau of Public Works before the war, he had destroyed bridges and placed logs in the roads to intercept the march of the Japanese. He further testified that he himself had been arrested by the Japanese, but he was able to escape. He impugned the testimony of the witnesses for the prosecution, Jesus Rodriguez and Manuela Enero, saying that they had grudges against him, for he had caught Jesus stealing nails, and that on one occasion he had refused to give food to Manuela Enero as he did not have enough for his own family.

The trial court did not believe the testimony of the defendant, finding no sufficient motive for the witnesses of the prosecution to testify falsely against him. Even supposing that he had given help to the guerrillas, that fact does not excempt him from liability for the crime that he committed in helping the Japanese arrest certain Filipinos whom they suspected being in the underground movement against the Empire of Japan.

In view of the foregoing, the judgment appealed from is affirmed, with costs. So ordered.

Paras, C. J., Feria, Pablo, Bengzon, Tuason, Montemayor, Reyes, and Bautista Angelo, JJ., concur.
Labrador, J., no part.