Eight critical errors identified

1 Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim didn't properly activate the crisis management committee, which meant the chief negotiator and others didn't have critical information.

2 Authorities didn't appreciate Mendoza's demands, and so only gave him a promise to review his case, not reinstate him. And the demands didn't reach the Department of Justice, meaning it could not get involved.

3 Mendoza's brother Gregorio shouldn't have joined the negotiating team that presented the offer of a case review to Mendoza; and he shouldn't have been allowed to tell Mendoza his police service weapon had been confiscated.

4 Chief negotiator Orlando Yebra, Lim and district police chief Rodolfo Magtibay were preoccupied with Gregorio at a critical moment, costing precious time and setting off a chain of events that led to Mendoza becoming 'fatally hostile'.

5 Lim ordered Gregorio arrested.

6 Lim and Magtibay left the advance command post at a crucial time to have a meal, creating a vacuum, with subordinates unable to cope.

7 Police began 'the inefficient, disorganised and stalled assault' without 'vital information' about the bus. An order from the Philippine National Police director for Manila to use the national elite Special Action Force wasn't obeyed.

8 There was no plan for what to do after the assault and the crime scene was not preserved.