Thanks for quoting this. It simply proves that FDR made an incredible mistake in not calling the Filipino Army into Federal Service at the same time as the National Guard was called up. As the General Grunert pointed out, the Filipino could be called up and armed at a much smaller cost than shipping US troops the Philippines. Had the 10 divisions been mobilized in December 1940, and given their required equipment, they would've been much more effective in December 1941.Currently the Regular Filipino Army had 468 officers and 3,697 enlisted men, so scattered that the largest single unit was the incipient 1st Infantry Regiment, with 286 enlisted men. The Reserve force had, nominally, 6,416 officers and 120,000 enlisted men, it was true, but, of the officers, 50 percent had received no training whatever and an additional 15 percent no field training: none had commanded a unit larger than a company.
The enlisted men's training was limited, groups totaling 17,000 having had 5½ months individual and company training during the previous 3 years, and 24,174 having received 10 days' field training in May 1939, but no unit as large as a battalion having yet been assembled for training. Shortages in clothing and equipment were large. There was no ammunition and only small amounts could be provided from local US Army stores, themselves restricted.
But the real tragedy is the idiotic Strategy followed by Marshall, Stimson and FDR. They would neither withdraw from/neutralize the Philippines nor properly reinforce it. They spent almost 2 years from Sept 1939-July 1941 regarding the Philippine Garrison as "Expendable" and then suddenly flipped in July 1941 to massive reinforcement. Even worse they deluded themselves into thinking 250 B-17s on Luzon would deter the Japanese. Its sad that 30,000 US army troops would pay the price for their bad descisions.
As shown by Eisenhower Diaries, Ord and Eisenhower were the ones responsible for the Organization of the Filipino army. They did the best they could on $8 million a year. Eisenhower was often upset at MacArthur for trying to do too much with too little, and exaggerating what could be done with such a pittance. But had MacArthur listened to Ike's all that would've happened is that you would''ve had a slighly better trained army with 50,000 men instead of 100,000.