MANILA, May 21, 2009 (AFP) - Philippine star television anchor Ted Failon has been cleared of criminal responsibility in the shooting death of his wife, which was ruled a suicide, government prosecutors said Thursday.

The justice department's National Bureau of Investigation announced it would not be filing charges against Failon, co-host of the primetime news show of top network ABS-CBN, a month after his wife was shot dead in the couple's home in northern Manila.

Bureau head Nestor Mantaring told reporters investigators ruled that the woman, Trinidad Etong, had "committed suicide."

Police said her body had been found in the couple's bathroom shot to death with a licensed gun owned by her husband.

Suspicion had fallen on the husband, a former legislator whose real name is Ted Etong, when the household staff told police they were ordered to clean up the blood as Failon took his wife to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead the following day.

Mantaring said investigators found the wife had been depressed after apparently losing a substantial amount of money that the husband had entrusted to her.