Failon wife shooting: Scene of the incident 'cleanup' baffles police

MANILA, Philippines - After being alerted about a shooting incident in broadcast journalist Teodoro “Ted" Failon’s home in Quezon City, police investigators rushed to the site hoping to gather every single piece of evidence they could find. Investigators, however, were greeted with an already “cleaned up" scene of the incident: the bathroom where Failon's wife was reportedly found. Even the vehicle used to rush her to the hospital had also been cleaned. It turned out that it was Failon’s house maids – identified as Frida and Carlota – who did the clean up at the bathroom, and it was Failon’s driver, Glenn Pulan, who took care of the blood stains in the Pajero vehicle. All three people told police they did the clean up “on their own volition," according to Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit. “They say they were not directed by anybody. They did it by their own volition," said Mabanag, adding that the three could be charged for violating Presidential Decree No. 1829 penalizing the obstruction of apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders. Even the gun, allegedly used in the shooting, passed hands, according to investigators, making it hard for the police to reconstruct the scene of the incident. “The firearm was taken by Glenn, and it was passed to Ted. All of these were removed from the crime scene so we are hard up in reconstructing how the victim was positioned thereat, including the place of the slugs and the empty shells," said Mabanag. Investigators said the bullet entered on the left side of Trinidad’s temple, but the gun was reportedly found on the right side of the victim’s body. Could there be a cover-up? Mabanag said this could be “pretty normal to be accepted considering that probably when they carried the victim, it [gun] was pushed on the right side." What Mabanag found puzzling was the absence of bullet markings in the room where Trinidad was found lying. “We noted that if it was from the left side, from the left temple going to the right, there was no markings on the wall of the comfort room," said Mabanag. “We cannot even see where the slug was ricocheted or stopped because it was flattened and the jacket of the slug was removed… Reportedly, it was found by the maid but the maid was I think the third or the fourth who entered the comfort room during the crime," he added. Mabanag also found that Failon's statement on how he saw his wife at the bathroom was different from the statements given by the house helpers. Also, the note purportedly written by Trinidad cannot be considered as a suicide note, according to Mabanag. “We cannot consider this as a suicide note kasi na-receive daw niya [Failon] ito last night when the wife went out with the sister [because Failon received it last night before his wife left with her sister]," he said. - Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV