Trinidad Arteche Etong, the wife of broadcaster Ted Failon, passed away at the New Era Hospital in Quezon City at 8:50 Thursday night from the fatal gunshot wound she sustained in a shooting incident Wednesday morning.

Reports by radio station DZMM, where Failon hosts a regular morning show, broke the news of Trina Etong’s death.

Earlier reports said Failon’s wife was showing signs of improvement, and the news of her death was expected to further fan speculations as to how she sustained the gunshot wound.

Failon, Mario Teodoro Failon Etong in real life, said his wife shot herself inside a bathroom in their house in posh Tierra Pura Subdivision. However, he and family members failed to immediately inform authorities about the shooting for at least four hours after the incident, triggering speculations of foul play.

Also earlier Thursday night, police picked up Failon’s sister-in-law Pamela Arteche and brother-in-law Maximo Arteche. They were brought to the Quezon City prosecutor’s office for inquest on charges of obstruction of justice.

The Failons have two daughters, Katrina Teresa, nicknamed Kaye, and Karishma.

Earlier in the day, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez ordered the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to place Ted Failon in its watch list pending police investigation on the shooting.

Gonzalez said that he issued the order because Failon, a former representative from Leyte, was a suspect.

The DoJ chief said he has also instructed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to help in the investigation, and assist the police in evidence gathering and interpretation.

“I have ordered the NBI to go in there already... I want them to be supportive of the police in the gathering and interpretation of evidence. We will not do a parallel [investigation],” he said.

On the reports that police have already cordoned off the shooting scene, Gonzalez said such action is legal considering that the area is a crime scene. “That is a crime scene because that's under police investigation. The first group of people who can do that is the police. The police must step in there,” he said.

He, however, said that while police investigators could invite all possible suspects to the shooting for questioning, they cannot hold or detain them since no charges have yet been filed against them.

“They cannot be held unless you inquest them,” Gonzalez said.

Asked if Failon had lapses in preserving evidence at the scene, Gonzalez said the cleaning of the scene was not actually a lapse, but a deliberate action to rid the place of evidence.

“That is not a lapse. That is intentional. Why will they clean the crime scene. They are tampering with evidence. That's why I don't want the PAO (Public Attorney's Office) to participate there,” Gonzalez said.

He said he has ordered PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta to stop directly taking part in the case because doing so is already outside PAO’s mandate.

“I have ordered them to stop. They are not supposed to do that. It is not their mandate. She was trying to argue it was within her authority...I have issued  a formal memo,” Gonzalez said.

The justice secretary said there was a conflict of interest when Acosta started directly taking part in the case. “She is trying to defend somebody not in her mandate. That is a conflict of interest. She told me she was already consulting with medico-legal experts. That's none of her business,” Gonzalez said.

He criticized claims that the police violated the privacy of Failon's family, saying those making the claims are the ones who violated “the privacy of a dying person.”

“The wife who seems to be the victim who [was] dying seems to be the culprit now the way a television network is weaving the story, mukhang yung asawa pa [ni Failon] ang may kasalanan,” Gonzalez added.