GUIUAN, the Philippines — As American cargo planes and military helicopters zipped across the sky above this decimated city, ferrying badly needed supplies to typhoon survivors, Philippine soldiers were working with what little they had — relying on motorcycles and boats to ferry messages between the army’s provincial headquarters and stricken municipalities along the eastern coast of Samar, some of them more than a hundred miles away.

In an acknowledgment of the army’s lack of sophisticated equipment, a spokesman said on Monday, “The courier system is our means of communications.”

The destructive fury of Typhoon Haiyan quickly laid bare the limitations of the Philippine government’s disaster preparation and relief capabilities, but increasingly, it is also focusing an unflattering spotlight on the nation’s military — an overstretched, poorly funded force that has been criticized for its late arrival to the disaster zone.

Officials have attributed the delay in part to a shortage of large troop carriers. But even when several thousand soldiers were finally able to fan out across the devastated islands of Samar and Leyte, their work was, and continues to be, hampered by a lack of provisions including food, heavy equipment and communications technology needed when cellphone service is down.