By Gigi M. David

ABS-CBN news anchorman Ted Failon—Mario Teodoro Failon Etong in real life—was held for questioning yesterday over the shooting of his wife in their Quezon City home, police said.

Metro Manila police chief Roberto Rosales said Failon’s wife, Trinidad Arteche Etong, 45, was fighting for her life at the New Era Hospital after sustaining a gunshot wound in her right temple, with the bullet exiting at the left side. She remained in critical condition at press time.

Rosales refused to release further details until after Supt. Franklin Mabanag, head of the Quezon City police’s criminal investigation unit, had finished questioning and subjecting Failon, 47, to paraffin test at Camp Karingal.

ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol World news program reported in its early evening broadcast that Failon had admitted to having an argument with his wife Tuesday night, and that she left their Tierra Pura home after the argument.

Failon, a former Leyte congressman, was at work the following morning on his show, Tambalang Failon at Sanchez, on dzMM radio with broadcaster Korina Sanchez when he received a telephone call allegedly from his wife while he was on air.

“I did not finish my program on dzMM this morning after I spoke with my wife on the telephone,” Failon said in a statement aired over the radio station.

“I rushed home and I discovered that the door was bolted. I found my wife bloodied inside the bathroom so I rushed her to the hospital.”

Police confirmed that Trinidad had been found inside the bathroom of her daughter’s room, and that it was Failon who had brought her to the hospital on his Mitsubishi Pajero accompanied by an unidentified sister-in-law.

Crime scene investigators said last night that a suicide letter was found inside the Failons’ master bedroom.