I heard there were a few of the elaborate panabas floating around in the early collecting days, pre ebay, not sure if Zel took a pic of the one in a private collection when he was out here, massive blade, like the lower one in Rick's pic but a longer, heavier version, finely carved hilt and intricate work done on a brass ferrule, dropping the weight of that blade alone could easily behead...
I can't validate the Sulu origin claim on the particular example, but I can pose a question, that if historically there were Iranun communities living in Jolo, wouldn't they likely use their own weaponry and would it constitute it as being used in the Sulu Sultanate? Under some circumstances, I'd say yes. Again, previous works by authors need to be reexamined and checked against other reliable sources.
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