Hello Ian,
Sabah is another candidate, but IMHO, i believe this particular piece is strictly philippines/sulu. like Jose said, the handle has a lot of Visayan flavor in it.
Detlef,
that could be a possibility as well. the pommel could be construed as a bat, which is a popular motif in Bicol. incidentally, this area is in the outskirts of the Visayan region, which would have a lot of influence in design.
here's a story: during the last quarter of 19th century, there was a Tagalog by the name of Pedro Cuevas who was a fugitive from Cavite. he was sent to Zamboanga to serve his sentence, and from there, escaped to Basilan. The Yakans challenged him, and ended up killing their leader. he was eventually accepted by the tribe and was bestowed the title of Datu. He became Datu Kalun, who lead the Yakans until his death. i believe his personal kris has a crucifix, in honor of his religious belief.
i don't think this was an isolated case. i could see some other filipinos doing this. perhaps who owned this particular piece was from visayan/bicol region who moved to Sulu, and decided to decorate his personal piece with something he was familiar with.
picture of Datu Kalun
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