The Hostage-Taking Fiasco Shouldn't Cripple the Aquino Presidency

Granted that the hostage crisis of August 23 came to a disappointing end with the loss of eight lives. Granted that the Aquino government failed miserably in responding correctly to the crisis. But this tragic event should not cripple the work of the Aquino administration to save the country from corruption and extreme poverty. Critics of Aquino are crying for blood by asking the President to make the extreme sacrifice and ask those heads of agencies and offices responsible for the hostage fiasco to resign. Aquino already accepted responsibility. That should be enough.
President Aquino has a lot of tasks at hand that might be imperiled by this seeming propensity to search for sacrificial limbs to recover the prestige and honor of the country in the light of accusations from all over the world that there was negligence on the part of the Philippines in saving the hostage victims. It seems that the country and its leaders have focused their attention to do everything to appease the prying eyes and end the ridicule that Filipinos are now facing from foreigners due to the events of August 23 at the Quirino grandstand, where a dishonored police officer commandeered a tourist bus and killed some of its occupants when his impossible demands were not met. This should not be the case.
The response that the government has made so far should be enough to prove to the world that the Philippines is sincere in its acceptance of blame and it has been apologetic to the families of victims of the hostage-taking, as well as to the government of Hongkong province, on the actions that the hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza committed as well as on the lapses of the police force in responding to the crisis.
Otherwise, the Philippine government should now turn its sight on the crusade to haul corrupt officials, smugglers, and other bad elements before the hall of justice and make the money that will saved from this crusade benefit the Filipino people through infrastructure development, health benefits, educational reforms and poverty-ending projects. This crusade cannot suffer the ningas-cogon mentality that has felled many a good crusade by the government. Aquino has just less than six years to make good his promise to eliminate corruption as the cause of the impoverished conditions in the country. The events of August 23 should not derail or cripple the work and dedication of the Aquino administration to bring the needed blueprint of a clean government into full implementation. In addition, P-noy will need all the heads of his Cabinet to help him achieve this. He should therefore not listen to critics who are suggesting that there should be resignations from his government resulting from the hostasge crisis fiasco. Aquino should know better.