Ted Failon

What happened to the life of popular television newscaster Ted Failon of ABS-CBN is both sad and distressing to me not just because he is a fellow journalist but because I have some indirect personal ties to him.

No, I am not personally acquainted with Failon. I have never met him, although I stood directly behind him once when we both covered the 50th anniversary of the MacArthur Landing in Leyte, his home province.

I have indirect personal ties to Failon because he was the classmate of my wife when they were both taking up Mass Communications at the now defunct Divine Word University in Tacloban, the capital of Leyte.

They were the pioneer batch of Mass Communications students at DWU. I could have met Failon personally when his batch had its internship with The Freeman in Cebu, but while Failon came with the batch to Cebu, he never reported to The Freeman.

It was through that internship that I met my wife-to-be, but that is another story. I am drawn to Failon because he seems to have been the most successful of his batch, at least in the field of mass communications.

While some rose to the top of their careers, it was Failon who had the great fortune to be affiliated with one of the giants in the Philippine television industry and thus made the millions that his former classmates could only dream about.

But that great fortune came crashing down last week when the wife of Failon was found in the bathroom with a bullet wound in the head, an injury from which she would not survive, dying later in the hospital to which she was taken.

Up to this writing, the police could not say whether the shooting was an act of suicide or whether foul play was involved. And it is not clear whether the police could make up its mind on the matter soon.

It may help a bit that his only daughter has given officials statements saying she does not believe her father could do it and should be a suspect in the death of her mother. On the other hand, it does not help that some evidence may have been tampered with.

The scene of the crime, meaning the bathroom, had been cleaned prior to the arrival of the police, who were not notified of the shooting immediately. Also, the driver of the Failon family car used in bringing the wife to the hospital was similarly washed and cleaned.

Failon had taken up Law after MassCom, and was in fact elected to a single term as a congressman in Leyte. This, plus his experience as a journalist, suggests he is not exactly ignorant of the law.

Classmates of Failon, while in agreement that he may be a little "bugoy-bugoy," do not believe it was in the character of Failon to shoot somebody, even at his worst. But when asked about the tampering of evidence, they seem to be at a loss for answers.

Two househelp of Failon, along with the family driver, had been taken into custody by the police, who accused them of tampering with the evidence. Some of Failon's relatives were also brought in for questioning.

But then, that has become another thing unto itself. The manner in which these people were arrested has raised some very serious legal questions, questions that now tend to overshadow the original case itself.

Whatever it is though, whichever way the pendulum of justice may swing, when it does swing, the unexpected twist in the life of Ted Failon cannot be anything but sad and distressing. The people you meet going up are truly those you meet going down.