President Park Geun-hye stood before a national TV audience Friday -- for the second time in 10 days -- to speak about the snowballing political meddling scandal surrounding her longtime associate Choi Soon-sil.

Park offered apologies and said she would accept an investigation by the state prosecution. She also said she would accept the opposition’s demand to name independent counsel.

Park read the statement as the crisis touched off by the scandal was infuriating the public to the degree that the latest opinion polls put her approval ratings at 5 percent -- the lowest ever for a president.

Massive protests -- which are expected to be far bigger than last week’s -- are scheduled for this weekend, and now opposition members are publicly demanding Park resign or be impeached.

Park’s statement was apparently timed to appease public sentiment ahead of the scheduled demonstrations and candlelight vigils. Park may well have thought that putting herself up to investigation -- becoming the first president to do so -- would help alleviate public anger and pull her out of the leadership crisis. Unfortunately, Park’s statement fell short.

Most of all, Park did not accept the demand she appoint a neutral Cabinet and delegate her power as president to it. She did not mention the issue directly in the statement, but gave strong indication she would not yield her leadership.

She said, among other things, as the presidential term of office is limited, there should be no hiatus in running the government and the government should perform due functions under a public mandate. It is clear she did not intend to give up any of her presidential powers.

This runs counter to public demands she delegate as much power as possible to the prime minister, who would run a Cabinet to be filled by ruling and opposition members alike.

Another issue Park missed regards her ties with the ruling Saenuri Party, where her loyalists -- including Chairman Lee Jung-hyun -- face mounting public calls to share responsibility for failing to forestall the scandal.

Basically, none other than Park is primarily to blame for the scandal, as she let a woman without an official title meddle in state affairs. Presidential aides like An Chong-bum, who is suspected of having aided Choi in extorting money from conglomerates, should also be held accountable.

Then it is quite natural for Lee and other followers of Park to follow suit. The “Pro-Park faction,” even before the Choi scandal broke, had long faced criticism for their blind loyalty to the president and seizing hegemonic control of the party.

The negative public sentiment toward Park and her loyalists reached its peak at the parliamentary election last April, in which voters handed out a devastating defeat to the party. Voters were angered by, among other things, Park and her associates’ excessive intervention in the nomination of candidates aimed at offering party tickets to more of its own members at the expense of more qualified candidates.

Despite the humiliating election loss that relegated it to a National Assembly minority, the pro-Parks -- without soul searching or offering a vision to reshape the party -- flexed its muscle as the largest faction and took over party leadership through the election of Lee, a core member of Park’s inner circle, as the new chairman.

Lee was Park’s first chief political aide at the Blue House and then the chief public information aide. His election as the party leader meant the unhealthy relationship between Park and the ruling party faction went even worse, with pro-Parks bent on upholding whatever directed by Park and setting their sight on extending their rule in the next presidential election.

It seems obvious that Lee and other Park loyalists are determined to hold on to their party leadership to help protect Park and keep alive their chances of winning the next presidential election.

But the old guard at the Saenuri Party -- along with their boss who many say is a president in a vegetative state -- has lost the public mandate too. They should give up control of the party. At the same time, Park must renounce her party membership.