Why did the defenders of Bataan have little air and naval support?

The defenders of Bataan lacked air and naval support primarily because the Japanese military effectively neutralized Allied capabilities in the region during the opening days of the Pacific War.21

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces launched a massive aerial assault on the Philippines. These strikes destroyed more than half of the U.S. Army’s Far East air strength on the ground and devastated the Cavite Naval Yard. With their air protection decimated, the remaining U.S. surface vessels were left in a precarious position; consequently, the commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, Admiral Thomas C. Hart, ordered the remaining larger ships to withdraw to Australia or Java.1

By the time the Battle of Bataan began in January 1942, the Allied forces were isolated. The defenders, consisting of an amalgam of American troops and Filipino reservists, were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula without the benefit of air cover or naval reinforcement, leaving them to hold out for 99 days against superior Japanese forces.21