  Using flavor SU(3) symmetry, we perform a model-independent analysis of
charmless $\bar B_{u,d} (\bar B_s) \to PP, ~PV$ decays. All the relevant
topological diagrams, including the presumably subleading diagrams, such as the
QCD- and EW-penguin exchange diagrams and flavor-singlet weak annihilation
ones, are introduced. Indeed, the QCD-penguin exchange diagram turns out to be
important in understanding the data for penguin-dominated decay modes. In this
work we make efforts to bridge the (model-independent but less quantitative)
topological diagram or flavor SU(3) approach and the (quantitative but somewhat
model-dependent) QCD factorization (QCDF) approach in these decays, by
explicitly showing how to translate each flavor SU(3) amplitude into the
corresponding terms in the QCDF framework. After estimating each flavor SU(3)
amplitude numerically using QCDF, we discuss various physical consequences,
including SU(3) breaking effects and some useful SU(3) relations among decay
amplitudes of $\bar B_s \to PV$ and $\bar B_d \to PV$.
