After all, the Department of Foreign Affairs has already made such a request in a note verbale to the U.S. Embassy on Nov. 15. Since Washington has not yet responded, now is a good time to get an answer.

But the prospects for a positive reply are not promising. Despite the hemming and hawing of Philippine prosecutors and the executive judge handling the case, the accused soldiers continue to remain under U.S. care and protection.

It’s likely the accused may not even appear when they are arraigned before the judge, who has yet to issue warrants for their arrest.

The U.S. may even decline the Philippine request for custody by invoking a provision of the Visiting Forces Agreement that says that the accused can only be turned over to the host country if they are found guilty after a trial.

In the meantime, the Philippine Government can show some spine by taking drastic steps to assert its national sovereignty.

For instance, it may recall its ambassador to Washington as a sign of pique for U.S. stonewalling. This is not without precedent. When the Singapore Government proceeded to hang Flor Contemplacion in 1995 despite a vigorous plea for a stay of execution, then President Fidel V. Ramos recalled the Philippine ambassador to Singapore.

President Ramos went a step further. He fired then Foreign Affairs Secretary Roberto R. Romulo.

Will President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo take matters into her hands and do a Ramos?

Not a few are skeptical. As things stand, Manila is ambivalent about Secretary Romulo’s mission to Washington. The secretary’s own spokesman denied that his boss would be meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The spokesman said Romulo will be in Washington to testify before an international arbitration panel over the mothballing of the Manila international airport in his capacity as a former executive secretary.

That may be so, but what’s wrong with raising the status of the Philippine plea for custody in the Subic rape case? That’s his job.