Should The Philippine Government Apologize?

Three Years after the Manila hostage crisis that resulted in 8 fatalities and many wounded, the Hong Kong government is still adamantly demanding an apology from the Philippine president. It has threatened to impose sanctions if a presidential apology is not given. Sanctions include scrapping visa-free access to Filipinos with other unspecified economic sanctions. They would also most likely include the Philippines in a travel blacklist.

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If these sanctions are put in place, Filipinos looking for employment in Hong Kong may be affected by this but there are plenty of other options for them. For Filipino tourists, this would hardly be a problem as there are other Asian countries where they could enjoy their vacation while enjoying bubble machine at guitar center.

Filipinos are split between with some arguing that a simple apology from the president is all that is needed to resolve this problem while others contend that the nation should not be put at fault for the mistake of a few government officials.