Jim, I have searched further online concerning the presence of oxen in the Philippines. There are no native oxen found there, although a somewhat similar animal is found on the island of Mindoro (in the Tagalog region) and not at all in Mindanao or the Sulu Archipelago.
If your example is, indeed, made from ox hide then it is almost certainly not from the Philippines (unless imported there by Spain).
Personally, I think the evidence that you present here is very persuasive that the item in question is not Filipino in origin. IMHO, the burden of proof for a contrary view should rest with the anonymous detractor.
There is little doubt that the origin of your piece and the Moro examples have a common model in older versions of Spanish armor, but that seems to be the extent of the commonality.
With regard to expertise in Moro armor, the problem is that there are very few examples. There are likely several pieces in the Smithsonian, which I believe holds some of the items collected by Pershing during his Moro campaigns. You mention a Spanish Museum, but there are several that have holdings of Moro weapons and they have been discussed on these pages a few times—not only national museums but also military museums. Part of the problem that I have with museums is that there inventory record keeping is not very good. Even curators have incomplete knowledge of what they hold. For perishable items, such as those made from leather, inventory may have been lost and there is no longer any record of it havng been collected.
I'm sure you have encountered these difficulties. While it is always good to nail down an item conclusively, I think you have done darn well to get this far. As for the detractor, ask him to show his evidence or shut up!
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