Again we are treated to a media spectacle in the mysterious death of the wife of ABS-CBN news anchor Ted Failon. The problem with events like this is that everybody wants to show boat.
There’s Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief Persida Acosta, perhaps starved for media attention, wanting to get into the act by publicly announcing that her office is ready to defend Failon. Then there’s DOJ Sec. Raul Gonzalez telling Acosta to back off since Failon can pay for his own lawyers.
Because of the high profile nature of this case, TV cameras are all over the place. So, the QCPD, perhaps wanting to show it means business even if a situation involved media celebrities, goes overboard. They seem to want to arrest everybody, including Failon, his three househelp and even the siblings of the wife, Trinidad Etong (Ted Failon’s real name is Theodoro Failon Etong). TV cameras showed how they roughly handcuffed and shoved the brother-in-law into the police car as if he was the perpetrator of the crime. If Failon had a pet dog, they would have arrested it as well.
The police decried obstruction of justice as they made the arrests. Yet they looked like thugs as they hauled in suspects for questioning. No doubt the Human Rights Commission would have a field day looking into this.
For the next several days we can be sure that news programs will be devoted much to whether Ted Failon shot his wife or she committed suicide. We will be bombarded with analysis, interviews and what not to satisfy the Filipino’s feeding frenzy for sensational news. And then we’ll wonder why other nations make jokes about us.
Maybe Wowowee isn’t that bad after all.
April 17th, 2009 - 4:06 pm
agree, this case should also be a case of how the police and other goverment official should behave and act professionally instead of using this case to promote their own agenda — pasakalye para sa election–did you see those policemen arresting everybody in the family of ted failon–what is they are wrong –they already damaged the reputation of the supposedly criminal–can they pay for those embarrassment and injustice especially through this family mourning of a dead member…
June 24th, 2009 - 4:19 pm
Its hard to trust the police.
if they can act like thugs and trample on the rights of high-profile people like Failon, then what more the normal Filipino?
speaking of losing faith in the police:
don’t ever call the pasay police if you need to be rescued. I remember a few years back when they blew as many holes in the poor boy who was being held at knifepoint by a deranged hostage-taker.