Well, the country as a WHOLE is not up to snuff in so many ways. And that's sad because they have the resources and an industrious population.
But a look at the infrastructure, and the lack of modernity in the "backwash" of the country, compounded by the hodgepodge of cultures and languages that make up the PI, explains a lot about why their military is not where it really should or could be.
I'm not sure, but I vaguely remember that there are about 700 different dialects in the whole country. Someone correct me if you know for sure.
Now, we have the Christians in the north, the mudslimes in the south, and a whole LOT of everything else in between.
With help, the country can and probably will succeed. I hope so, because I do like the PI and its people. They had always treated me decently, and were generally a friendly bunch.
On a parting shot, the PI has another problem that may or may NOT rear its head: Most of the economy is driven by a very large population of ethnic Chinese. On a good day, things are quiet. On a bad day, stores get burned.
My wife is from Mindanao, and she always says there are 85-87 languages & dialects. All Filipinos learn Tagalog (the language of Manila) and English in school so they can understand each other; in my wife’s neighborhood the local language is Cebuano, so she had to know three languages to get around all right.