Robert:
Interesting piece and I don't find the painted hilt a distraction. This is the third or fourth example I have seen that would seem to have come from Luzon. The wood "hanger" on the scabbard is occasionally seen in central Luzon, and a recent example I showed from Apalit had such an arrangement (see the scabbard for the fat-belly bolo in Post #1 of this thread
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18769).
I also have a modern example of a painted hilt on a late 20th C barung (purchased 1998) that probably came from the Lake Lanao or Palawan area. Here are some pictures of that one:
The painting in this case seems to have occurred at the time of manufacture.
Ian.