Wayne, i can only speak for myself, of course, but i certainly wasn't implying that just because some of these renovations may have been done outside the Philippines that you should have to now change them. Personally i probably would have left the bands on the sheath alone (well, maybe not the crimped one
), but unless i thought i could really improve the look of the thing i would probably leave it alone. I personally wasn't pointing out the renovations as a "bad" thing, just trying to establish what was what in that process.
I suspected the possibility of the silver gangya (and asang-asang). I have seen this before, but can't recall where. Congrats on that, a good score. I seriously doubt this was a Western renovation, though it may not have been the original.
On the pommel band, i think you might want to push that more towards the pommels that the top of the leather wrap is covered.