What a mess? – Ted Failon

Manila Philippines – (UPDATE 3) The wife of television news anchor Ted Failon died at the hospital on Thursday evening, a day after she was shot in the head inside their home in Quezon City, her attending physician said.

Trinidad Etong, 44, expired due to complications from penetrating cranial missile injury, or a bullet wound to the head, at the New Era General Hospital at 8:50 p.m., said Doctor Adonis Gascon.

Gascon told reporters that there was a “less than five percent” chance for survival among patients who suffer gun shot wounds to the head.

Doctors tried to revive her for 15 minutes by applying electric shocks, he said.

The family was asked whether the doctors should continue with the emergency procedure, and they agreed to have it terminated upon seeing that the patient had “flat-lined,’’ Gascon said.

Earlier, at around 8:15 p.m., Delfin Lee, a friend of Failon’s, told reporters that doctors had started performing ‘’emergency treatment’’ on Trina after a drop in her blood pressure.

“She took a turn for the worse at around 8:30 p.m. or earlier,’’ Gascon said.

Etong expired shortly after police said they would no longer force Failon to go to the Quezon City prosecutor’s office for inquest proceedings.

Before she died, Etong’s relatives at the hospital refused to submit her to a paraffin test, said Senior Superintendent Franklin Mabanag chief of the Quezon City police Criminal Investigation and Detective Unit (CIDU).

A paraffin test determines whether or not there are traces of gunpowder on a person’s hand.

Failon, his sisters-in-law Mean and Pamela Arteche, and several house could face obstruction of justice charges for tampering with the crime scene and not reporting immediately that Etong had been shot, police said.

The Arteche sisters were brought to the Quezon City prosecutor’s office for inquest proceedings shortly before Failon’s wife died.

Failon claimed he discovered his wife bloodied inside their daughter’s bathroom on Tuesday.

The primetime news anchor underwent a paraffin test on Wednesday. The result was negative.

Mean Arteche went hysterical when informed of her sister’s death by telephone, saying she could not forgive police for taking them from her sister’s deathbed.

“Hindi ko kayo mapapatawad [I will never forgive you],” she told police. With reports from Thea Alberto, INQUIRER.net; Nikko Dizon, Dona Pazzibugan, Kristine Alave, and Julie Aurelio, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Police arrested ABS-CBN news anchor and former Congressman Ted Failon at 12 midnight allegedly for tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice for failure to immediately report the shooting of his wife.

Failon was brought to Camp Karingal in Quezon City by the arresting team led by Supt. Gerardo Ratuita, deputy chief of the Quezon City Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit. The popular news anchor was accompanied by his eldest daughter, Kaye, and his lawyers.

Senior Supt. Franklin Moises Mabanag said that Failon was arrested for tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice.

Failon had rushed his wife to the New Era General Hospital, where she was fighting for her life with a gunshot wound in the head at press time.

The circumstances of the shooting of his wife, Trinidad Arteche Etong, 45, remained unclear. She was still in critical condition, radio reports said.

Mabanag said it had not been established if Failon (born Mario Teodoro Failon Etong) was involved but that foul play was not being ruled out.

“We found inconsistencies in his statement and the statement of the maid,” said Mabanag, chief of the QC CIDU. Failon ordered that the bathroom where his bloodied wife was found be cleaned, he said.

The maid and the houseboy who did the cleaning were arrested earlier Wednesday night, but police were yet to take Failon into custody in his house, where Vice President Noli de Castro, a friend and former broadcast colleague, and lawyers were keeping him company.

A police source said a paraffin test showed that Failon was negative for powder burns.

In an interview over ABS-CBN late Wednesday night, Failon said his wife had left him a letter, saying she was sorry but gave no details.

“It’s about family finances,” he said, recounting that he attempted to sort out this problem with her the previous night. “I told her we came from nothing, why should that be a problem?” Failon said in Filipino, his voice breaking.

“Everyone inside the house, including Ted Failon, is a suspect,” Mabanag said, referring to the broadcaster’s household on Gen. Aquino Street in the Tierra Pura subdivision in Quezon City.

In his statement sent earlier by his home network ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., Failon said in Filipino that he did not complete his program over dzMM radio Wednesday morning after speaking with his wife on the phone.

“I immediately went home and saw that the bathroom door was locked. I had the door opened and I found my wife bloodied, so I rushed her to the hospital,” he said.

But in its early evening newscast Wednesday, ABS-CBN reported two different versions of the incident.

According to one version, which quoted an official of the Quezon City police, Failon shot his wife in the heat of a quarrel in their car.

According to the other version, Failon admitted having had a spat with his wife, and that when he came home after his radio program Wednesday he found her bloodied in their bathroom.

The conflicting reports were aired shortly before ABS-CBN sent Failon’s statement to media offices.

Source: Inquirer.net