G.R. No. L-1731, L-1676, L-1624; January 31, 1950
The People of the Philippines, plaintiff-appellee, vs. Faustino Flores, Leon Gutierrez, and Felipe Reyes, defendants-appellants.

FACTS

The appellants were charged with treason, primarily for their alleged participation in the “zoning” or “zonification” of Barrio Tipas, Taguig, Rizal, on December 1, 1944. During this event, a mixed force of Japanese soldiers and armed Filipinos rounded up male residents, suspected them of being guerrillas, subjected them to torture, and later transported them to Fort Manila, from which many never returned. The People’s Court convicted the appellants based on this count. On appeal, the sole factual issue was the sufficiency of evidence proving each appellant’s participation in the overt act of treason.

ISSUE

Whether the conviction of the appellants for treason violated the constitutional “two-witness rule,” which requires that every overt act constituting treason must be proved by the testimony of two witnesses.

RULING

Yes, the conviction violated the two-witness rule. The Supreme Court acquitted all appellants. The testimony against each appellant was defective: for Faustino Flores, two witnesses testified but to different acts or moments during the zoning, not the same overt act. For Leon Gutierrez and Felipe Reyes, the witnesses also testified to different acts or sightings without mutual corroboration as to a specific, single overt act. The Court rejected the Solicitor General’s argument that the entire day’s zoning constituted a single treasonous act, holding instead that each separable act, movement, deed, or word of the defendant charged as treason must be supported by two witnesses to the same specific manifestation. Since no two witnesses corroborated each other on the same overt act for any appellant, the legal requirement was not satisfied. The judgments of conviction were revoked.

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