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PEOPLE. Vs. Ceferino Manuel, etal.

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. CEFERINO MANUEL, LUIS EUGENIO, RANULFO ATILANO @ FELIPE ATILANO, SEGUNDINO ANDRES @ "DITO", FELIPE RAMILLANO and ENRIQUE MANUEL, accused, CEFERINO MANUEL, SEGUNDINO ANDRES and LUIS EUGENIO, accused-appellants.

G.R. No. L-44461 | 1988-04-15

D E C I S I O N


NARVASA, J.:

The belief that thirteen is an unlucky number has never entirely died out and continues to live on in the minds of the more credulous. The notion that the number presages disaster or misfortune of some sort is still fairly prevalent. And even those who would scoff at superstition as the relic of more primitive times and ways of thought often cannot help feeling a frisson of fear or foreboding when they find themselves part of a group or gathering of thirteen.

What befell the Alfaro family of Zamboanga City on January 24, 1972 is not likely to reassure the scoffers or disabuse the believers. Late in the...