unneccessary unfairness against untv

i just have to put this in before the weekend break.

of course we all know about the carnapping shootout thing & the coverage of UNTV of the shooting (i'm too much in a hurry to put in the link, just use your favorite search engine for a backgrounder). according to scuttlebutt, the casualties were really of the bad sort, but there was overkill on the part of Traffic Management Group (TMG) (don't think it was anything of the kuratong baleleng type though, just additional bullets used even when the guys expired).

after being suspended then reinstated, members of the TMG (don't know either if they were the ones in the shootout or not) were seen going around the UNTV premises doing what's called in military parlance as casing or for more western audiences, a sort of stakeout. thing is, they want to be seen by their targets, for the main purpose of harassing their target (in this case UNTV). TMG stopped when UNTV was able to call for help from the Eastern Police District (a location-based PNP unit, as opposed to a special unit like the TMG)

this thing is usually done to scare suspected criminals or other malcontents of society to force them to clean up their act. but in this case, UNTV's sin was to air something it has seen. the act could've been defended amply by the police; instead it had to resort to harassment. (i'm surprised no online version of this news came up, i saw it in the morning news of magandang umaga pilipinas)

my beef is this: why did the TMG have to go to that point of harassing a relatively unknown UHF station? because they were too lazy to go through the usual process? or because they felt emboldened that this increasingly unpopular government will not stop them? at the very least it won't chastise the TMG; but most probably it will champion the TMG's cause.

damn. the empress' paranoia has come to this.