Journalist Failon under watch after wife's shooting

Manila: Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales placed a popular broadcast journalist under a watchlist while his wife remained in critical condition from a gunshot wound which her family claimed was self-inflicted.

Mario Tedoro Etong who goes by the name Ted Failon, is not yet on a hold order list. But he will be under scrutiny until he is cleared of any involvement in the shooting of his wife Trinidad in their home in suburban Quezon City on Wednesday, Gonzales said.

Failon, his driver, and several house workers in his home in Tierra Pura Subdivision, were brought to the police for investigation on Wednesday night.

Before that, they were all subjected to paraffin tests.

On Wednesday morning, Trinidad Etong, 45, was declared brain dead from a bullet wound in her left temple, doctors at the New Era Hospital said. The broadcast journalist and his driver had brought the victim to the hospital.

She allegedly left a letter saying, "Papa, I'm so sorry. I want to tell you the truth. But I don't know how to start. I'm very afraid. I will leave now. I can't take it and I'm ashamed. Hope you can forgive me." The couple quarrelled on Tuesday night, and the wife left their house, but she returned on Wednesday morning, sources said.

Explaining what happened, Failon said in a statement released by ABS CBN, the TV network where he works, "I did not finish my radio programme at dzMM on Wednesday morning after I talked to my wife over the telephone. I immediately went home and I found the bathroom door locked. I asked for the door to be opened and found my bloodied wife and I rushed her to the hospital."

Police noted inconsistencies in the stories about the shooting which were given by members of Failon's household. Doctors said that Failon's wife was wounded at the left temple, and the bullet exited in her right temple.

One of the house helpers, however, claimed to have seen the calibre .380 Walter PPK pistol which was allegedly used by the wife, on her right side.