Shouldn't this be at HALF-MAST?

Our Philippine Flag flutters gaily
over the Neptune Club,
where the accused Americans supposedly "picked-up"
the victim in the Subic Rape Case.

Apparently,
them G.I.s sure were on full-mast that night.

This is turning into a
"minsa'y may isang gamu-gamo" issue,
what with the beloved Fr. Reuter weighing in
with opinions seemingly from pre-Vatican II.

“I think it was seduction,”
said the man in the cassock, the Rev. James B. Reuter,
of the highly charged case in which four American marines
are accused of raping a Filipino woman.

“She was 22 and Danny was 19,”
said Father Reuter, 90,
an American Jesuit priest
who has lived in the Philippines for most of his life.
“The only one accused of touching her is Danny, the baby boy,”
he said, referring to Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith,
who is at the center of the case.

The words have a discordant ring in a trial
that has been cast by nationalists and women’s-rights groups
as a symbol of American abuse and exploitation of its former colony.

They come as a particular surprise from Father Reuter,
whose fondness for the Philippines
and high-profile involvement in public affairs
have offered a contrasting view of the American presence here.

He has no formal role in the case
but has taken it upon himself to be not only a spiritual adviser
but also an energetic advocate for the marines.
“I don’t think they’re guilty,” he said, “not a bit.”