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    The lower court had found Agoncillo guilty based on allegations that he sold materials to the Japanese army such as alum crystals, water pipes, tires and parts. However, the Supreme Court found that the prosecution did not sufficiently prove the overt acts, as key details regarding prices paid and how the items were disposed of were uncertain or not corroborated by witnesses. Even if the sales had been proven, the items sold were not exclusively for war and the sales alone did not demonstrate intent to aid the enemy at the time. As the evidence allowed for another probability of innocent motive, reasonable doubt required an acquit

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    The lower court had found Agoncillo guilty based on allegations that he sold materials to the Japanese army such as alum crystals, water pipes, tires and parts. However, the Supreme Court found that the prosecution did not sufficiently prove the overt acts, as key details regarding prices paid and how the items were disposed of were uncertain or not corroborated by witnesses. Even if the sales had been proven, the items sold were not exclusively for war and the sales alone did not demonstrate intent to aid the enemy at the time. As the evidence allowed for another probability of innocent motive, reasonable doubt required an acquit

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    56 views1 page

    People v. Agoncillo

    Uploaded by

    Einstein Newton
    The lower court had found Agoncillo guilty based on allegations that he sold materials to the Japanese army such as alum crystals, water pipes, tires and parts. However, the Supreme Court found that the prosecution did not sufficiently prove the overt acts, as key details regarding prices paid and how the items were disposed of were uncertain or not corroborated by witnesses. Even if the sales had been proven, the items sold were not exclusively for war and the sales alone did not demonstrate intent to aid the enemy at the time. As the evidence allowed for another probability of innocent motive, reasonable doubt required an acquit

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    of 1

    G.R. No.

    L-985             January 23, 1948

    THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, 


    vs.
    DIONISIO AGONCILLO, defendant-appellant.

    Macario Nicolas for appellant.


    Assistant Solicitor General Ruperto Kapunan, Jr., and Solicitor Federico V. Sian for appellee.

    PARAS, J.:

    This is an appeal from the judgment of the People's Court finding the appellant, Dionisio Agoncillo, guilty of treason and sentencing him to
    suffer fifteen years of reclusion temporal and to pay a fine of two thousand pesos and the costs.

    According to the information, from February, 1944, to March, 1945, in Cebu City and its environs, the appellant (1) "did consistently and
    continuously traffic in war materials and sold them to the enemy," and (2) "did join and serve the enemy as informer, agent, and spy." The
    People's Court held that the second count was not proven, and the appealed judgment of conviction is predicated solely on the first count.

    Under the theory of the prosecution, appellant's adherence to the enemy is inferable from the following alleged facts: (a) In the afternoon of
    September 20, 1944, while the appellant was taking a bath in the house of his neighbor Rufina Cepeda, the latter's cousin (Olimpio Do), who
    knew how to read Chinese, examined appellant's clothes and found therein appellant's identification card written in Japanese and Chinese
    characters tending to show that the appellant was a Japanese undercover. (b) In January 1945, after a trip to Bohol, Rufina Cepeda told the
    appellant that there were guerrillas in Bohol and that Japanese notes were no longer accepted in said place. In the evening of the next day,
    Rufina Cepeda was arrested by the Japanese and their undercovers and asked about things she saw in Bohol. Rufina was detained for three
    days. After her release, the appellant came to her house and got some chickens for the consumption of the Japanese who arrested her. A
    Japanese also used to sleep once in a while in appellant's house.

    Upon the other hand, appellant's alleged overt acts of giving aid and comfort to the enemy are summarized in the brief for Government as
    follows: In the middle of April, 1944, the appellant sold about 300 kilos of alum crystals, at three pesos a kilo, to the Keribo, a construction
    company operated by the Japanese Army. Two or three weeks thereafter, he sold to the same entity some 100 pieces of water pipes, the price
    of which was not known. About the third week of December, 1944, the appellant was seen on Jones Avenue helping push a handcart full of
    truck and auto tires, batteries and spare parts into the intermediate and high school premises then used by the Japanese Army as a motor pool.

    Regardless of the writer's view on suspension of political laws and change of sovereignty as heretofore expressed, the Court is of the opinion
    that the overt acts imputed to the appellant have not been duly proven. With respect to the sale of 300 kilos of alum crystals, the testimony of
    the prosecution witness Lorenzo Barria to the effect that the price was P3 a kilo, is not corroborated by any other witness. With respect to the
    alleged sale of 100 pieces of water pipes, counsel for the appellee admits that the price thereof was not known. An essential part of the overt
    act charged in the information was therefore lacking. No pretense was made that the appellant donated the articles in question. The alleged
    delivery of truck and auto tires, batteries and spare parts can be disregarded. The only detail that may at most be considered established by the
    prosecution refers to the fact that the appellant helped in pushing a handcart loaded with such articles, and the evidence is even uncertain in
    one respect, namely that the cart was brought either to the intermediate school premises or the high school building. Indeed it was
    acknowledged by the lower court that the witnesses for the Government did not know how the appellant disposed of the articles loaded in the
    cart.

    Even supposing, however, that the appellant had really sold for a definite price alum crystals and water pipes, the same did not  per
    se constitute treason. As said articles or materials were not exclusively for war purposes, their sale did not necessarily carry an intention on the
    part of the vendor to adhere to the enemy. The theory of the prosecution is that the sale was treasonable in view of the other proven acts
    showing appellant's adherence to the enemy. It appears, however, that the alleged acts of adherence performed by the appellant took place
    after the overt act in question. It is not unlikely that at the time the appellant made the sale, his motive was purely personal gain, uninfluenced
    by any benefit inuring to the enemy. Where two probabilities arise from the evidence, the one compatible with the presumption of innocence
    will be adopted. (People vs. Agpangan, G.R. No. L-778, October 10, 1947.)

    Wherefore, the appealed judgment is reversed and the appellant acquitted with costs de oficio. So ordered.

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

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