I think the attribution to the Philippines may be partially because it was such an unknown piece for many dealers and they had to come up with some provenance so why not the Philippines, and the attribution would carry on for years however some may have been carried far abroad as sailors and soldiers do travel.
I have seen several Chinese and south Asian spearheads offered as Spanish colonial And it is difficult to tell a sellers boosting of an object from an item that was brought here in olden days.
Here is another picture of a relatively more modern machete supposedly from Cuba patterned after the old style
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