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Originally Posted by ashkenaz
Are these exaggerations or whatnot?
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Mostly. As Battara said, there was iron mining and smelting in the Philippines. For some brief details, see
http://intersections.anu.edu.au/mono...tz_metals.html
Traditional smelting was in bloomery furnaces. Chinese-style blast furnaces were used in continental South-East Asia (e.g., Thailand), mostly run by local people of Chinese origin. I don't know if any such blast furnaces were operating in the Philippines, but it's possible.
Iron and steel have been imported into the Philippines for many centuries (often from China), which probably (a) accounts for the exaggerated stories of all Philippine iron and steel being imported, and (b) reduced local iron/steel production. Even if imported iron/steel was available, there was still local production. Imported iron/steel must be bought, and even if you have no money or other suitable trade goods, you can make your own iron/steel from local charcoal, local ore, and local labour.
Very probably the Moros preferred to forge their blades from steel, or at least using laminated construction with steel edges (if you have access to steel, either locally-made or imported, and you know about hardening steel by quenching, why wouldn't you prefer steel edges?) But iron blades wouldn't surprise me, especially if it's a cheap tool or something like an arrowhead. Steel is better, but iron is cheaper.