Philippine Army combat rations

[donaldjcheek]

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has a solid, though not spectacular, combat record. Organized, trained and equipped along US lines, it is rated as an effective light infantry army with a good record in counterinsurgency operations. However, one failing of the AFP is in the area of field rations.

To put it bluntly, the Philippine Army has no standardized combat ration.

Following US practice, commanders are given an allocation to purchase food in garrison, and the quality and quantity of the daily ration varies widely according to the availability of commodities and skills of unit cooks. Which means soldiers in garrison are fed familiar foods, based mostly on rice, noodles, bread, fresh vegetables, and some meat - primarily chicken, pork and fish.

However the lack of a pre-packaged operational ration is a problem. Unlike other nations, the Philippine Army has no equivalent of an MRE, a 24-hour ration pack, an RCIR, or an EPA.

The AFP is an operational army, fighting a sometimes-no-so-low level counterinsurgency against both the Communist New Peoples' Army and several Islamic separatist movements such as Abu Sayyaf and the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front). So, how do you feed the troops on patrol or in combat?

Some commanders simply provide the troops part of the daily ration allowance in cash and allow the soldiers to buy their own food. (Many operations take place in populated areas, so the troops can stock up at the local sari-sari or grab a meal-to-go at Jollibees.) Other commanders take advantage of donated US surplus MREs (many approaching or even past the expiration date) - which are not popular with Filipino soldiers. AFP troops complain the US rations are too greasy, too fatty, too salty, too processed, and make them ill.

Most commanders put together a "standard" combat ration pack which contains uncooked rice, canned Ligo brand sardines (or Century brand tuna, or Philips canned sausage), instant noodles, Skyflake crackers, instant coffee, a tea bag, and perhaps an individual package of cookies or a heat-resistant chocolate bar. The Filipino soldier has stoically been surviving on crackers and canned sardines for decades now.

Periodically the Filipino government attempts to come up with a combat ration, but so far all efforts have been unsuccessful. In 2004, a canned rice ration was developed in two versions - the CR (Canned Rice) and the CRM (Canned Rice with Meat) - but still has not seen wide distribution. The CR proved unpopular, but the CRM was judged just barely acceptable. (Precooked rice tends to be lumpy and hard; Filipinos prefer fluffy rice with separated individual grains.)

Part of the problem seems to lie in the low-level corruption which seems endemic in the AFP. There are persistent complaints from soldiers in the field that some commanders hold back a portion of the ration allotment, which ends up in the commander's pocket instead of the soldier's mess kit. The Filipino people are aware of this, and often provide soldiers on patrol - and even in combat - with home-cooked meals. News reports of the recent fighting in Zamboanga City highlighted the donation of 100-lb sacks of rice by local merchants to combat units, and several news clips showed the local population providing troops with combat meals of hard-boiled eggs and rice wrapped in banana leaves.

As always, the Filipino soldier endures. As one Lieutenant recently wrote, "For a seven day operation, we take along four days of 'wet' and three days of 'dry' rations. The 'wet' rations, which must be cooked, consist of rice, dried vegetables, salted fish or dried beef, and whatever we can forage from the jungle. The 'dry' rations are Skyflakes (Filipino version of a saltine cracker) and canned sardines, which can be eaten on the go."

You would think that a nation which has a substantial canning industry and a world-renowned Rice Research institute could come up with something better than crackers, sardines and Vienna sausage.

[housil]

Thx for this very exotice report