MANILA, Philippines—The elder of two daughters of TV personality Ted Failon Thursday angrily disputed accusations her father was involved in the shooting of her mother, Trinidad Etong.

In an interview over dzMM radio, 16-year-old Kaye said her father was not at home at the time of the shooting.

“It is one big sham to show that Papa is a suspect,” said Kaye in Pilipino. “It is not possible that Papa is at fault in what happened to Mama.”

Kaye said she was in Cebu Wednesday morning and that upon hearing of the incident, she flew back to Manila immediately and went home straight to her father who was under police custody, before even seeing her mother who was fighting for her life.

Kaye studies film at the American-run International Academy of Film and Television in Cebu.

She defended her father’s leaving Camp Karingal Thursday morning to visit Etong at the New Era Hospital in Quezon City.

Self-inflicted wound

“We asked properly for permission to leave. Papa did not escape. I pleaded that I had not seen my mother since I came back,” she said.

Kaye said that what her father said in his statement to police investigators was the same version Failon told her.

“It was a self-inflicted incident. Isn’t it that you’re innocent till proven guilty?” she said. “Everything in his statement was everything he told us.”

Kaye said her sister Karishna did not even know of the shooting.

“How would I tell that to a 12-year-old?” she asked, her voice breaking.

It’s all about money

Kaye earlier asked for prayers for the speedy recovery of her mother, who she said had financial problems. (Her mother succumbed to a gunshot wound in the head at 8:50 p.m. Thursday.)

“It’s all about money. That’s the big problem of my mother that she could not reveal,” Kaye said. She did not elaborate.

As to the farewell note purportedly from Etong, Kaye said she knew her mother’s handwriting well enough to know that it really came from her, including the use of “po,” a term of respect in Filipino.

She lashed out at people who she said were making a joke of the family tragedy. She referred specifically to police officers who were laughing and were posing for pictures as Failon was taking his paraffin test for gunshot burns.

“I knew I had to be by my father’s side as soon as possible because no one was with him when the police came.”

What case?

She said she and her father were made to wait three hours for a single signature before dawn Thursday until Public Attorneys Office chief Persida Acosta came for them.

“What case? There’s no warrant, no crime has been committed,” Kaye said.

The tragic fate that befell her mother, Kaye said, was something unexpected.

“I didn’t think it would happen to us,” she said.