Philippine Scout Rangers: The Best!

CEBU, Philippines - Joel Lambert, a veteran of the US Navy SEAL Teams and star of Discovery Channel’s hit reality show “Manhunt,” praised the Philippine Army Scout Rangers’ rare ability to track down just about anyone in the tropical jungles.

“Those guys were good. They were really good,” Lambert said.

The show’s executive producer, Eddie Barbini, said he was “blown away” watching how the Filipino unit worked.

“Their strongest asset is the ability to sustain themselves in this harsh environment. These guys can move through jungles unlike anyone has ever seen,” he said.

Lambert, an expert in escape and evasion, said he was lured out of retirement from the military to do the TV series because “it was so excessively challenging.” In the show, he takes on six elite military units from six different countries. In the episode shot in the Philippines, Lambert was hunted down by members of the Philippine Army’s elite trackers, the Scout Rangers, headed by Lt. Jerson Jurilla.

The episode started with Lambert attempting to create a diversion by popping a smoke grenade and zip-lining from a tower on Mt. Sta. Rita in Subic, Zambales. The hunt officially began when the team of Lt. Jurilla finds an 11-inch boot track left by Lambert as he went on his exhaustive journey into the thick forest of Mt. Sta. Rita.

The game plan was for Lambert to cut through the dense forest, evade the Scout Rangers and reach the extraction point in 48 hours. During the manhunt, Lambert was also given an extra baggage of carrying a team of Discovery Channel producers who were tasked to document the hunt.

After several hours of pushing himself to the limit, and Lambert just a few kilometers away from the extraction point, the Philippine Scout Rangers caught the ex-Navy SEAL.

Speaking to the media after the episode’s screening, Lambert declared that among the other tracking units he faced during the first season, “the Scout Rangers were the best.”

“As far as doing the series, the most difficult episode by far was here in the Philippines,” Lambert said. “The Scout Rangers were one of the most competent and difficult opponents I [have] faced, the jungle around Subic was the worst I’ve ever been. It completely was not [what] I anticipated. My plan didn’t work… It was really, really miserable.”

Lambert added that in other episodes – shot in South Africa, Poland, Panama, Arizona and South Korea – he was able to escape the tracking units. He, however, would not divulge which units he was able to evade.

As proof of Lambert’s frustration during the Philippine manhunt, he would throw out expletives several times. There was a time when Lambert was planning to sleep for only two hours, but he overslept for four hours because of extreme exhaustion. He admitted during the talk with media that he uttered more bad language in the Philippines compared to the episodes in other countries.

For their part, Lt. Jurilla said that they were able to catch Lambert despite his expertise in escape and evasion and their limited resources, because his team knew the Subic jungle like “our own backyard.”

Lambert faced off against the Philippine Scout Rangers, with just 48 hours to escape the dense jungle. Over a distance of 25 kilometers and with two trucks as their only assets, the Scout Rangers proved to be among the world’s best at jungle tracking as they utilized their unique skill set to stay hot on Lambert’s trail. But the harsh heat and humidity of the Philippine jungle – and an unfortunately timed typhoon at the time of the shoot in January – pushed Joel, the hunting unit and the crew to the edge.

In an interview with Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith of the Hollywood Exclusive, Lambert revealed that a producer had to be hospitalized in the Philippines. There were cases of Dengue Fever. “One of the camera guys got his shoulder torn – his rotator cuff detached from the bone,” he said. “That was $100,000 worth of surgery. He’s recovering now.”

The Philippine episode of “Manhunt” airs on Discovery Channel every  Monday at 8 p.m.  starting  tomorrow, April 7.

(Helpful Source: www.philstar.com) (FREEMAN)