Visayan Sword on Cato's Moro Swords?

[zelbone]

Spunger,
You'll see alot of similarities with weapons among the various ethnic groups in the Philippines...sometimes they look so similar it's hard to differentiate. Take for instance the blade form which is found throughout the Philippines where the blade has a straight cutting edge and widens from the hilt to the point and the spine curves back down to the edge. You see this in the Sulu bangkung, Ilongo binangon, Cebuano ginunting, T'boli tok, as well as the binakoko of Luzon.

The Moro sword you pointed out is one of those rare Moro oddities. Really, I don't know what to call it, but if I had to I'd call it a rare barong variant. At least the scabbard looks like an older barong form. Whether it has a specific name, that I really don't know. I've only seen one other sword like it and it was in an illustration in the book Sword of Valor. Looking at one of those "Weapons of the Moroland" souvenir plaques it looks similar to the laring or the lahot, although I've never seen actual examples of those weapons. I do offer a couple of possibilities courtesy of our own fellow forumite Vandoo who seems to stash away every kampilan and odd Moro sword around . The first is a gupad and the second a kambontouli.